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WASHINGTON: More than 50 million Americans have voted in the presidential election, an early voting expert said on Friday (October 23), indicating a potential record turnout for the November 3 showdown between President Donald Trump and the challenger Joe Biden.
According to Michael McDonald of the University of Florida Election Project, at least 52 million people had cast their votes in person or by mail 11 days before Election Day.
That’s 22 percent of all eligible American voters. McDonald and other experts predict the election could set a modern turnout record, surpassing the 60 percent turnout rate in recent presidential elections.
The huge early voting total gives Republican Trump less leeway to change his mind before the vote is over. Opinion polls show him behind Biden, a Democrat, both nationally and, by a narrower margin, in various battle states that will decide who sits in the White House on January 20, 2021.
Trump said those polls underestimated his support. “I think we are leading in a lot of states that you don’t know about,” he told reporters at the White House.
Campaign manager Bill Stepien said the race was tightening in Minnesota and said the campaign would buy more television advertising there. Opinion polls show that Biden leads the state.
A final debate with Biden on Thursday offered Trump a chance to reverse his fortunes, but analysts said he was unlikely to alter the race in a fundamental way.
Preliminary estimates showed that fewer people watched the debate than their first debate in September.
Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 221,000 people in the United States and cost millions their jobs remains the key issue on the minds of voters.
In a reminder of the accelerating spread of COVID-19 as winter approaches, researchers at the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation warned that the virus could kill more than half a million people in the United States. United States by the end of February 2021.
They said about 130,000 lives could be saved if everyone wore masks, according to a study published Friday.
Biden, 77, plans a speech in Delaware on Friday to discuss his plans to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
Biden said the 74-year-old Trump has screwed up the response. Trump has defended his handling of the health crisis, saying the worst is over.
‘EVERYTHING IS UP’
Trump has frequently criticized the absentee vote, which is rising in the pandemic, as unreliable, and his campaign has fought efforts by states to expand a practice that analysts say is as safe as any other method.
Trump himself has voted by mail in past elections, but plans to vote in person in Florida on Saturday, the White House said.
Vice President Mike Pence cast his early voting ballot in Indianapolis on Friday morning.
Democrats have cast roughly 5 million more votes than Republicans so far, though their margin has narrowed in recent days, according to TargetSmart, a Democratic analytics firm.
Democratic analysts say they are applauded for those numbers, but caution that they expect a belated rise in Republican votes on Election Day.
Republican strategists say strong face-to-face turnout in Florida, North Carolina and Iowa gives them hope that Trump can win those battle states again this year.
“It’s very, very difficult to compare this to anything,” Democratic strategist Steve Schale told reporters. “Everything has gone up since 2016.”
Americans can find themselves waiting days or weeks to find out who won while election officials count tens of millions of votes by mail.
In Texas, a traditionally Republican state that has become more competitive, turnout has already reached 71 percent of the 2016 total, according to McDonald’s figures. It has reached 50 percent in three southern states of the battlefield: Georgia, North Carolina and Florida.
Election officials in battlefield states like Pennsylvania are struggling to minimize the possibility of a disputed outcome.
FOCUS ON FLORIDA
Both candidates have been paying attention to Florida, where a Reuters / Ipsos poll this week found Biden moving toward a slight lead after being in a statistical tie a week earlier.
Trump will begin his visit at Villages, a sprawling retreat center. Trump gained 17 percentage points from voters 65 and older in 2016, but polls show him matching or behind Biden with top-level voters this year in the state.
In the evening, Trump will hold a rally at the Pensacola airport, in the heavily Republican area of northwest Florida. Trump will cast his vote in West Palm Beach on Saturday.
Former President Barack Obama, with whom Biden served as vice president for eight years, will campaign in Florida on Saturday. Obama made his debut in Biden’s election campaign in Pennsylvania on Wednesday.
Biden entered the final days of the race with more money than Trump. The Democrat raised about $ 130 million during the Oct. 1-14 period, roughly three times the $ 44 million raised by the Trump campaign.
