Battle for swing states heats up
US President Donald Trump was heading to the battleground state of Pennsylvania yesterday with hopes of rekindling the 11th-hour surge of support that powered his surprise 2016 victory.
But with more than 30 million early ballots already cast with less than two weeks to go before voting ends on Election Day Nov. 3, time is running short in his contest against Democratic challenger Joe Biden.
National polls show former Vice President Biden holding a wide lead on Republican Trump, though the contest is closer in swing states including Pennsylvania, Florida and North Carolina.
Trump has gained some ground on Biden in Pennsylvania, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Monday, which showed the challenger leading by 49% to 45%, slightly narrower than a week earlier.
Trump is due to hold a rally in Erie, in the state's northwest corner, at 7 pm Eastern Time (2300 GMT). Biden has no events planned.
Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 219,000 Americans and thrown millions out of work, has taken a heavy toll on his re-election prospects.
The battle has played out in eight or nine swing states for months, but perhaps nowhere more intensely than Florida, the largest up-for-grabs prize of them all, delivering 29 of the state-by-state Electoral College votes that decide who wins the presidency.
Reuters/Ipsos polling also shows Trump trailing in Wisconsin and Michigan, the two other Rust Belt states that he narrowly carried four years ago. Trump also trails in Arizona and the two are effectively tied in Florida and North Carolina.
Early voting began Monday in Florida. The Florida race is tightening down to a knife edge; statewide polls show Biden ahead by an average of 1.4 percentage points -- compared with 4.5 points less than two weeks ago.
The increasingly diverse state is a bellwether, having voted for the candidate who ultimately became president in 18 of the past 20 elections -- including Republican Trump in 2016.
Biden, fresh off two events in North Carolina -- another state Democrats want to flip -- dispatched Harris to Florida for a drive-in rally in Orlando and a voter mobilization event in Jacksonville. The events are key for Democratic efforts in larger, more urban areas to offset the advantages Trump has in smaller counties across Florida.
Early returns show registered Democrats outpacing Republicans in most states that track party affiliation. Trump has repeatedly characterized absentee voting as unreliable, though experts say it is as secure as any other method.
His campaign and the Republican Party have sought, with mixed success, to limit mail voting in states that expanded it in response to fears of spreading COVID-19 at crowded polling places.
In Pennsylvania, his campaign has failed to prevent officials from setting up ballot drop boxes, a popular option in many other states.
On Monday, the US Supreme Court also allowed state officials to count mail ballots that arrive up to three days after the Nov 3 election, rejecting a Republican effort to reject all those that arrive after Election Day.
Early in-person voting, already underway in many states, will begin in Wisconsin, Utah and Hawaii on Tuesday.
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