[ad_1]
Saturday, October 24, 2020
November 3 is the official date for the United States presidential elections. But already more than 50 million Americans have cast their votes. The incumbent himself is one of them, but unlike ordinary citizens, Trump’s visit to an electoral college in Florida is short-lived.
The president of the United States, Donald Trump, took the opportunity to cast his vote at the beginning of the presidential elections. Trump went to a polling station at a library in West Palm Beach, Florida. “I voted for a guy named Trump,” he later said on television cameras.
West Palm Beach, on Florida’s Atlantic coast, is Trump’s official residence alongside the White House. The real estate mogul, who was once registered in New York, owns a golf course there. “It was a very safe vote. Much safer than casting a ballot, I can tell you,” Trump said. He was referring to the issue of voting by mail, which also allows you to cast your vote.
Florida is one of the states that allows its residents to vote before the official election date on November 3. So far, more than 50 million people have cast their vote at polling stations or by letter. In the 2016 presidential election, a total of nearly 139 million Americans voted. In light of the crown crisis, more people than usual are taking the opportunity to vote early.
After there were concerns in recent months that mailed ballots might not arrive in time, many people have to wait hours to vote in person. This was the case in New York, for example, where polling stations were open for early voting on weekends. Trump has been claiming for months that with mass mailed ballots, the risk of voter fraud increases dramatically. For their part, experts and electoral authorities emphasize that there is no evidence of this. Democrats are warning against an attempt by the Republican president to cast doubt on the election result.
Biden continues to lead the polls
In the last presidential election four years ago, a total of 47 million US citizens took the opportunity to vote early. This time, according to data from the “United States Election Project” by political scientist Michael McDonald of the University of Florida, there are 56 million. Almost 17.5 million of them would have voted personally and about 38.5 million by letter.
Trump had joked during a campaign appearance in Florida on Friday that, if necessary, he would stand in line for two hours to vote. In fact, the Secret Service had secured the electoral college hours before the president’s arrival, CNN reported. Television images showed that the street in front was completely cordoned off. Trump’s spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany confirmed to fellow journalists that there were no other voters in the library.
Trump is behind Democratic challenger Joe Biden in the polls ten days before the election date. The president is trying to turn things around by campaigning in potentially crucial states. Just for today he has scheduled three concerts in North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin. Regardless of the rapidly growing number of corona infections, thousands of supporters are gathering for Trump’s speeches, many of them not wearing masks.
Biden plans to speak twice in Pennsylvania today, with singer Jon Bon Jovi joining one of the concerts. In the Corona crisis, the Democrat relies on small events with strict rules of distance. Among other things, his followers often sit in their cars in parking lots.
