President Donald Trump will vote in his adopted home of Florida before holding campaign rallies in three swing states on Saturday, joining more than 53 million Americans who have cast early ballots at a record-setting pace ahead of the Nov. 3 election, Reuters reported.
Trump will vote in person in West Palm Beach, near his Mar-a-Lago estate, after switching his permanent residence and voter registration last year from New York to Florida, a must-win battleground for his re-election bid.
Democratic rival Joe Biden and his wife Jill also will hit the campaign trail, traveling to the vital battleground of Pennsylvania for two events on Saturday. Former President Barack Obama will campaign in Florida, making his second campaign-trail appearance on behalf of his former vice president after a stop in Pennsylvania on Wednesday.
With 10 days to go in the campaign, about 53.5 million Americans already have cast early ballots, a pace that could lead to the highest voter turnout in more than a century, according to data from the U.S. Elections Project.
The rush to vote is a sign of the intense interest in the contest between Trump and Biden, as well as concerns about avoiding crowded polling places on Election Day and reducing the risk of exposure to COVID-19, which has killed more than 224,000 people across the United States.
Many states have expanded in-person early voting and mail-in ballots ahead of Election Day, as a safer way to vote during the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump, who has regularly condemned mail-in voting without evidence as prone to fraud, even though experts say it is as safe as any other method, voted by mail in two elections since he switched his address to Florida, a presidential primary in March and a state election in August.
“I’m here to vote!” he told supporters at a rally in Pensacola on Friday night, one of two he held in the state.
On the campaign trail on Friday, Biden and Trump renewed their battle over Trump’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Biden said Trump had given up on containing the virus, while Trump accused Biden of overstating the health crisis to scare Americans into voting for him.
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