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WASHINGTON: US Elections Officially Open: North Carolina on Friday (Sept. 4) launched vote-by-mail operations for the Nov. 3 contest between President Donald Trump and Joe Biden, which is getting uglier by the day.
Concerns about the continued spread of the coronavirus are expected to lead to a major increase in the number of votes cast by mail, as Americans avoid polling stations.
In a country on the brink of a health crisis and a nationwide reckoning on race, the next two months will test the ability of the world’s largest economy to organize its elections profoundly altered by the pandemic.
North Carolina was to begin mailing more than 600,000 ballots, in response to a huge increase in demand.
Other key states on the battlefield, like Wisconsin, will follow in the coming weeks.
The way Americans vote has become another flashpoint in an increasingly divisive political landscape.
A recent poll by USA Today and the University of Suffolk showed that 56 percent of Republican voters polled said they would go to vote in person, while only 26 percent of Democrats plan to do the same.
One in four Biden voters said that if the former Democratic vice president loses on Nov. 3, they would not be ready to accept a Trump victory as “won fairly.” About one in five Trump voters said something similar.
SEEDS OF DOUBT
While seeking a second four-year term, Trump for months cast doubt on his base about the legitimacy of an election with a significant number of votes by mail.
Trump, who votes by mail in his adopted state of Florida, repeatedly and without proof, has said voting by mail could lead to widespread fraud.
He has even suggested to his followers that they try to vote twice to test the system, which has earned him contempt on social media and from Democrats.
Facebook, the world’s largest social network, reminded users that voting by mail has a “long history of reliability” in the United States, as does voting in person.
“LOSERS”
The tense campaign battle between Trump and Biden heated up Thursday when The Atlantic magazine reported that the Republican headline had referred to US Marines buried in a World War I cemetery in France as “losers” and “fools” for be killed in action.
The reaction was swift, with Trump sending a barrage of tweets on Thursday and another on Friday to defend himself.
“Atlantic magazine is dying, like most magazines, so they make up a bogus story to gain some relevance,” Trump wrote.
“History already disproved, but this is what we are up against.”
The story refers to a visit to France made by Trump in November 2018, on the occasion of the commemorations of the centenary of the end of the Great War.
Trump did not visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris, officially because his helicopter was unable to get him there due to bad weather.
But The Atlantic, citing four anonymous sources who said they had first-hand knowledge of the discussions, reported that it had told senior staff: “‘Why should I go to that graveyard? It’s full of losers.’
On the way back to Washington after a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, Trump erupted, criticizing the accusations as “disgusting, grotesque and reprehensible lies.”
“I’d be willing to swear on anything that I never said that about our fallen heroes,” he said.
His top aides quickly launched a counteroffensive that inundated social media with photos of the president with US soldiers.
But excerpts from his campaign speeches in 2016, when he mocked the late Senator John McCain, a prisoner of war for years in Vietnam, also quickly came to the fore.
SWING STATES
On Friday, both Trump and Biden stayed close to home.
The former vice president was to speak in his home state of Delaware on Friday about “the economic crisis that has been exacerbated by Trump’s inability to control the virus,” his campaign said.
Trump was not expected to stray far from the White House over the three-day Labor Day holiday weekend.
With Election Day two months away, all eyes are on the key states that could tip the election one way or another.
Pennsylvania and Florida, both won by Trump in 2016 in close races over Hillary Clinton, are particularly in the spotlight.
According to the latest Quinnipiac University poll, Biden has a solid lead in Pennsylvania, with Trump’s 52% to 44% support.
In Florida, the two men run side by side, with 48 percent for the Democratic challenger and 45 percent for the incumbent.
