Early voting for the U.S. presidential election officially kicked off on Friday with the opening of polling stations in Virginia, Minnesota, and South Dakota.Video footage shared by U.S. television networks showed voters lining up in Virginia to cast their ballots. Early voting in the state is set to continue until November 2.Meanwhile, Minnesota and South Dakota offered voters a different option, joining the 23 states that allow voters to hand-deliver their absentee ballots to polling places or other designated locations instead of mailing them.With early voting becoming increasingly popular over the past decade, experts predict a significant turnout of early voters in this year's general election.It's worth noting that during the 2020 election, more than 69 percent of voters cast their ballots either by mail or through early in-person voting, according to data collected by the MIT Election Data and Science Lab. This figure was 40 percent in the 2016 election and 33 percent in the 2012 election.So urce: Qatar News Agency