Trump casts vote ahead of campaign blitz in battleground states

Donald Trump has joined more than 56 million people across the United States to cast their ballots early, as the US president voted on Saturday morning in Florida before beginning a day of rallies in key battleground states.

The president’s campaign blitz 10 days before November 3, reminiscent of his state-hopping in the final stretch of the 2016 election, comes just a day after the United States recorded a new single-day record of COVID-19 infections.

The president wore a mask when he voted, but took it off when speaking to reporters. Several hundred supporters gathered with flags and signs outside the library where he voted, chanting: “Four more years.”

“It was a very secure vote, much more secure than when you send in a ballot,” Trump told reporters after voting in West Palm Beach, repeating unfounded allegations that mail-in voting is more susceptible to fraud.

“I voted for a guy named Trump,” he added.

Lagging in national polls and with what analysts consider a narrow path to victory in the Electoral College, Trump has been trying to recreate the enthusiasm he harnessed in the final days of the 2016 campaign.

On Saturday, he had rallies scheduled in North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin, all states considered important for victory, but where COVID-19 cases have spiked and in-person rallies may be a political liability.

Speaking at the first event, in Lumberton, North Carolina, Trump portrayed the pandemic as being blow out of proportion by Democrats and the media, suggesting that “on November 4th, you won’t hear about it anymore”.

The president also referred to widespread testing as both “good” and “very foolish” because it increases the official case count in the country. He added that the US might already have a vaccine “if it weren’t for politics”, renewing unfounded claims that political actors inside government agencies have worked to slow the development of an inoculant to hurt his chances at reelection.

On Friday, North Carolina recorded 2,716 new cases, the highest daily total since the pandemic began.

Biden in Pennsylvania

Meanwhile, Trump’s Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, who has made his cautious approach to campaigning during the pandemic central to his messaging, had two events scheduled on Saturday, both socially distanced “drive-in rallies” in Pennsylvania.

“I wish I could go to car-to-car meet you all. I don’t like the idea of all this distance, but it’s necessary,” Biden told supporters in Bucks County, north of Philadelphia, at the day’s first event.

“I appreciate you being safe. What we don’t want to do is become super spreaders.”

Biden then decried the recent spike in infections, deriding Trump’s cavalier approach and a claim made by the president during Thursday’s debate that the US is “rounding the corner” on COVID-19. The country has reported over 224,000 deaths since the pandemic began.

The former US vice president also highlighted Trump’s admissions, detailed in a report in September, that he understood the severity of the pandemic in its earliest days despite downplaying that threat to the public.

Biden is set to hold a second event Saturday in Luzerne County, near his birthplace of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and an area once considered a Democratic stronghold that Trump won in 2016.

Polls show Biden narrowly leading Trump in the state, which is considered crucial to both candidates.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll released earlier this week showed Biden with a 4-percentage-point advantage on Trump in the state, down from seven points the week before.

Biden cast his ballot weeks ago in Delaware.

On Thursday, 12 days before the election, early voting surpassed the total number of early votes cast in 2016.

As of Saturday, the number of people who had cast their ballots early – either by mail or in-person – was more than 40 percent of all the votes cast in 2016. (Aljazeera)