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Sweden votes in elections with record early turnout

Up to 3.6 million Swedes have cast early ballots in parliamentary, regional, and municipal elections.

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

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Sosiaalidemokraattien Andersson sekä ruotsidemokraattien puheenjohtaja Jimmie Åkesson saapumassa TV4:n vaaliväittelyyn torstaina. Kuva: Anders Wiklund / EPA

What this story says

  • Sweden is holding parliamentary, regional, and municipal elections on Sunday.
  • A record 3.6 million Swedes have voted early, surpassing the 3.1 million from previous elections.
  • Opinion polls predict a win for the Swedish Social Democrats.
  • Polling stations are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Swedish time.

Who covered it

Left 28%(19)Centre 32%(21)Right 40%(27)

Percentages are shares of the 67 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 71 of the 138 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

62/100

Craft

67/100

Hype

45/100

138 sources · methodology

Missing from the left

Only 19 of the 67 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.

A reader who follows the left would not have seen this. We report the absence rather than explain it: outlets choose what to cover for many reasons, and we have no evidence about which one applies here.

Sweden is holding its parliamentary, regional, and municipal elections on Sunday. The Swedish election authorities reported that up to 3.6 million Swedes have voted early, the highest number ever recorded. In previous elections, approximately 3.1 million Swedes cast their ballots in advance. Polling stations are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Swedish time.

Disagreement on election day timing

Yle reported that polling stations are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Swedish time, which is 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Finnish time. The source material does not provide alternative timings from other outlets.

What the coverage left out

None of the reports below mention the specific number of eligible voters in this election, which Yle stated was higher than in previous elections, making it uncertain if the proportion of early voters had increased.

Coverage settled. We checked this 46 times and stopped on 18 Sept 2026, 22:30. The figures above are what it finished at.

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

19 rated outlets

We have not written our reading of the left coverage of this story. The left-rated outlets that ran it are listed below.

Centre

21 rated outlets

  • The centre-rated report from Yle led on the record number of early votes cast in Sweden's elections. It stated that up to 3.6 million Swedes had voted early, a figure higher than the 3.1 million who voted early in the previous election. The report also mentioned that opinion polls predict a victory for the Swedish Social Democrats, with the Sweden Democrats and the Moderate Coalition competing for second place. Yle noted that polling stations would be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Swedish time.

Right

27 rated outlets

We have not written our reading of the right coverage of this story. The right-rated outlets that ran it are listed below.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Sweden votes in elections with record early turnout?
Of the 67 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 28% are rated left, 32% are rated centre, 40% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 138. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Sweden votes in elections with record early turnout left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 67 rated outlets on this story, 28% are rated left, 32% are rated centre, 40% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of Sweden votes in elections with record early turnout biased?
Sweden votes in elections with record early turnout is one event reported by 138 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Sweden votes in elections with record early turnout?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Sweden votes in elections with record early turnout?
138 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
When are the Swedish elections taking place?
Sweden is holding its parliamentary, regional, and municipal elections on Sunday. Polling stations are open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Swedish time.
How many people have voted early in Sweden?
A record 3.6 million Swedes have voted early in the upcoming elections. This figure surpasses the approximately 3.1 million who voted early in the previous election.
Which party is predicted to win the Swedish election?
Opinion polls predict a victory for the Swedish Social Democrats. The Sweden Democrats and the Moderate Coalition are predicted to be competing for second place.

Read it at the source

139 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

19
Show 11 more

Centre

21
Show 13 more

Right

27
Show 19 more

Not rated

72
Show 64 more

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

Sweden Elections | MediaBias News