NEW YORK - New York City saw a big turnout in early voting for the 2024 general election, following the general trend.

By the time polls were closed on Sunday, a total of 257,860 New Yorkers voted in the first two days of early voting for 2024, which started on Saturday, according to data issued by NYC Board of Elections.

The first day of early voting logged 140,145 votes, nearly 50,000 more than that the votes logged on the first day in 2020.

In some voting sites, voters waited up to 40 to 50 minutes to take their turn to vote.

The votes in Onondaga, Oneida, Madison, Cayuga and Cortland Counties of New York State all saw a big increase in early votes on Saturday.

As of Sunday afternoon, the United States had 41.26 million early votes with both in-person votes and mail ballots topping 20 million, according to data released by Election Lab with the University of Florida.

Republicans' change of stance to encourage supporters to vote early from attacking early voting four years ago is seen as the main contributor to higher turnouts in early voting this year.

The US presidential election for 2024 is scheduled to take place on Nov 5.