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US President Donald Trump has twice voted by mail since he became a Palm Beach County resident a year ago.
But on Saturday (local time), like so many other Florida Republicans, Donald Trump voted for Donald Trump in person.
Trump cast his vote at the Palm Beach County Main Library in West Palm Beach around 10 a.m.
Trump voted only in a private room in the library, according to White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. Outside, Trump supporters waved flags and chanted, hoping to see the president.
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He left his private voting room around 10:17 a.m. With the stacks of the library behind him, he quickly stopped to tell reporters that he felt safer voting in person, rather than mailing his ballot. He also shared his predictable election for the presidency.
“I voted for a guy named Trump,” he said, before setting off in a caravan to the airport.
The president’s campaign hosted events outside of early voting locations in Miami-Dade, Naples, Jacksonville, Pensacola, and Tampa. Big screens broadcast the moments after Trump’s vote.
Outside the Westchester Regional Library in West Miami-Dade County, about 50 people gathered on the lawn of Francisco Human Rights Park, where a large screen showed Trump moments after casting his vote and as he addressed reporters. , drawing cheers from the Westchester crowd.
Many of them waited to cast their vote early Saturday morning, just hours before the president cast his. They cheered the president and other Republican candidates on the ballot.
“We are here especially for María Elvira Salazar, Esteban Bovo and Donald Trump, who is the priority. We are here for the main thing, which is him, honestly, “said Gloria Molina, a 58-year-old Nicaraguan voter who cast her early vote on Saturday. Salazar is a Republican running for Congress in Miami. Bovo is a Republican running for mayor of Miami-Dade.
Molina and her husband, Eduardo Jorge, said they wanted their vote counted in person, rather than sending a ballot by mail, because they did not rely on voting by mail, a process that the president has repeatedly tried to qualify for. as untrustworthy.
“I know there are a lot of things that are complicated with voting by mail, so I don’t trust,” said Jorge, 56, who is Cuban-American.
John Raoux / AP
Trump offers remarks to supporters at a campaign rally in Florida.
Across the library, and across the political spectrum, local Democratic candidates and a crowd of about 50 supporters gathered near a colorful Colombian chiva bus, as some women danced cumbia, a Latin American folk dance, and wore white skirt skirts. decorated. in red, yellow and blue. A musician was beating on a vallenata box, a drum made of cowhide.
Florida Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, Miami-Dade Commissioner and mayoral candidate Daniella Levine Cava also made appearances, taking the opportunity to criticize Mayor Carlos Giménez’s decision to veto the idea of turning the American Airlines Arena into a district. electoral. Giménez is Mucarsel-Powell’s rival for the 26th District congressional seat.
Many of the Democratic supporters said they had already voted by mail. Lisandra Miller, 48, said her entire family had voted by mail.
“I work for the post office, so I know it’s [trustworthy]”She said.” We don’t sell votes … We put everything in the mail flow and it all goes directly to the Elections Department, so we don’t throw anything away. That’s just rhetoric. “
Miller, who wore a Mucarsel-Powell mask, added that he voted for Democrats until the end of the ballot because he felt it was important to keep Democrats in power at the congressional level.
Andrew Harnik / AP
There are 10 days left before the US elections.
“[Trump] Nothing has changed, ”Miller said. “It just made everything worse.”
More than 12,000 people had already voted at the Westchester Library, which serves a largely Cuban-American community in West Miami-Dade County. It has been one of the busiest polling places in South Florida and an indicator of Trump’s support among Cuban Americans and Republicans for voting in person at the polls before Election Day.
Trump is relying on large Republican turnout at early voting centers by Nov. 3 to help minimize the Florida Democrats’ vote-by-mail advantage.
About 575,000 more Democrats than Republicans have voted by mail since late September in Florida. But Republicans have outnumbered Democrats at early voting locations by about 190,000 over five days of early voting.
The numbers are a nearly two-decade reversal of Florida’s early voting and mail-in trends, in which Republicans have built advantages through the mail and Democrats popularized early voting centers. The coronavirus pandemic prompted the transition, as the response to Covid-19 pushed Democrats to view ballots by mail as a safer option, and Trump to attack the security of voting by mail, sometimes repeating falsehoods about the Discarded mail ballots.
However, Trump’s inaccurate characterizations of vote-by-mail do not appear to have diminished the party’s vote-by-mail numbers. Florida Republicans are likely to set a party record Saturday for the number of ballots cast by mail in an election at more than 1.1 million, surpassing their 2016 numbers with 10 days before Election Day.
Republicans did not keep pace with Democrats as the pandemic boosted the record number of mail-in ballots cast.
Instead, Republicans are showing up big during early voting. And Trump wants them to come forward to avoid the need for a massive push on Election Day to win his home state, a battlefield he cannot afford to lose.
Democrats, who tend to vote in greater numbers on the weekends, are also looking for a big Saturday in South Florida. Former President Barack Obama planned a drive-in on Saturday in North Miami, and Biden’s campaign hosted a series of events across the state.
Trump cast his vote the morning after campaigning in The Villages retirement community in Central Florida and in Pensacola.
– The Miami Herald
