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Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
Jim Watson, Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images
- US President Donald Trump poked fun at the vote-by-mail media in America.
- Meanwhile, his counterpart, Joe Biden, spoke of unity while campaigning in Georgia.
- The US elections will take place on November 3.
Lagging behind national opinion polls, US President Donald Trump again attacked the country’s electoral mechanics on Tuesday, saying it would be “inappropriate” to take more time to count the tens of millions of votes cast by mail. in his career against Democrat Joe Biden.
As Trump, a Republican, questioned voting by mail, Biden delivered a message of unity at a rally in Georgia as part of a foray into Trump campaign territory a week before Election Day on November 3.
Early voting, both by mail and in person, has skyrocketed to record highs as Americans cheer on a high-risk election while seeking to avoid exposure to the coronavirus.
The sheer volume of mail-in ballots – more than 45 million have already been cast – could take days or weeks to count, experts say, meaning a winner might not be declared on the night of November 3, when business closes. urns.
“It would be very, very appropriate and very nice if a winner were declared on November 3, instead of counting the ballots for two weeks, which is totally inappropriate and I don’t think that’s because of our laws,” Trump told reporters at the White House before leaving for a campaign rally in Michigan. “We’ll see what happens.”
Trump has repeatedly and without evidence suggested that an increase in vote-by-mail will lead to increased fraud, although election experts say that is rare in US elections. Voting by mail is a long-standing feature of American elections, and about one in four ballots were cast that way in 2016.
Democratic officials, activists and voters have expressed deep anxiety that Trump will not accept the result if he loses. Biden has called it his biggest fear.
Democrats are voting early in greater numbers than Republicans this year, according to data from the University of Florida’s US Elections Project, but some states don’t allow officials to even start counting them until the polls close. Failure to count on Election Day, as Trump suggests, could give the Republican an advantage.
More than 68.5 million votes have been cast so far, which is close to half of the 2016 total vote. Trump has repeatedly and without proof claimed that voting by mail will lead to widespread fraud.
Republicans in a series of court battles in the United States are trying to limit the time voters have to send in their ballots.
Former Vice President Biden, 77, has a lead over Trump, 74, in national opinion polls, but the race is tightest in battle states like North Carolina, Florida and Arizona, where the election could be decided.
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Biden made a foray into traditional Republican territory Tuesday by visiting Georgia, in a show of optimism that his campaign may end four years in office for Trump, who has overseen the devastation of the country by the coronavirus, a rise in racial tensions. and wear. of ties with European allies.
The Democrat delivered a message of unity in Georgia, which has not supported a Democrat in the US presidential election since 1992.
“I am running as a proud Democrat, but I will govern as American President. I will work with Democrats and Republicans. I will work just as hard for those who do not support me as I do for those who do. The job of a President, a duty of care for all,” he said Biden.
He spoke at a rally in Warm Springs, at the vacation home of former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the Democrat who led the nation during the Great Depression and during World War II.
The 2020 presidential campaign has been unlike any other, as a raging coronavirus pandemic that has so far killed more than 225,000 Americans fuels record early voting.
Nearly half a million people in the United States have contracted the new coronavirus in the past seven days, according to a Reuters tally, as cases and hospitalizations set new records in hot spots in the Midwest. More than 5,600 people died from the virus across the country in the past week.
In another show of confidence for Biden, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday that he will spend about $ 15 million on television advertising in Texas and Ohio in the coming days.
On Tuesday, Trump visits Nebraska and also holds rallies in Michigan and Wisconsin, two states he won narrowly in 2016 but where polls now show him behind Biden, before stopping overnight in Nevada.
Meanwhile, Trump’s planned rally in Nebraska suggests that his campaign is preparing for a closed end. The state distributes three of its five electoral votes by majority vote in its three congressional districts, and the Omaha-area district is a potential recovery opportunity for Biden, while the rest of the state is expected to opt for Trump.
