BATON ROUGE - Monday and Tuesday are the last days of early voting for Louisiana's November midterm election, and early voting numbers show they have nearly surpassed the total number of ballots cast in the early voting period for the 2022 midterms. 

The turnout among Black voters in Louisiana has been high throughout this early voting period, and Saturday's totals continued that trend. The latest statistics show Black voter turnout has already shattered the turnout during the 2022 midterm's early voting period by nearly 25,000 votes. 

Data from the Secretary of State shows 363,685 people have cast their ballots already in Louisiana during this early voting period.

Black voters make up 123,568 of those votes, or about 34%, of the vote. 

Saturday saw the highest percentage yet of ballots cast by Black voters. Of the 68,288 people who voted early on Saturday, 28,481, or 41.7 percent, were by Black voters. 

It's due in part to multiple organizations' efforts to put on heading-to-the-polls events across Louisiana. 

Second Line to the Polls is set for Tuesday. The special event was orchestrated by Southern University's Jaden York for members of the East Baton Rouge community.

The event will take people directly downtown to cast their ballots on the last day of early voting. 

"To give people the opportunity to still go advocate for what they like in the community, that's the best thing, and I think that goes for all races, all genders,” York said. "The buses that are going to be provided from CATS, they're going to come and pick us up. We're going to have an escort from the Baton Rouge Police Department, where they're going to escort us all the way to downtown.” 

Groups like the Power Coalition have been hosting events and putting on efforts to get people to the polls, saying it has played a part in the high turnout so far. Cree Matlock said they work to get the vote out to all communities. 

“We're very intentional about making sure that underserved and Black communities are getting out to vote because oftentimes they feel like there's a voting apathy or they don't understand their power in the vote,” Matlock said. "For the River parishes, we actually went into the community and did bussing and picked up people who didn't have opportunities to have a vehicle or ride to the polls themselves."

Along party lines, registered Democrats have a slight advantage over registered Republicans in the total number of early votes. In 2022, more registered Republicans voted early than registered Democrats. 

Early voting continues Monday and finishes on Tuesday. The next time to vote in person will be Election Day on Nov. 3.