Record turnout in early voting for US prez election despite Covid-19

Washington, Oct 16 (IANS): US states have witnessed a record turnout in the early voting, both in-person and by mail, for the November 3 presidential election despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, it was reported.

According to the US Election Project, which tracks early voting statistics in real time, as of Thursday, more than 17,800,000 Americans have cast their ballots either through the mail or in person, The Hill news website reported.

The figure equates to almost 13 per cent of the total number of voters in the 2016 presidential election.

Voter turnout in some swing states also broke records.

In Texas, over 1 million residents cast their ballots on Tuesday, the state’s first day of early voting.

Meanwhile in Georgia, voters waited in queues for up to 12 hours on Monday to cast in-person votes.

So far this week, at least 379,000 of the state’s residents voted in person, while over 500,000 have mailed in their ballots.

In Florida, over 2 million residents have already mailed in their ballots, which is more than 20 per cent of the total voter turnout in 2016.

In-person voting in the state will begin from October 19.

All the three above mentioned states swung in favour of President Donald Trump in the 2016 election.

According to CNN’s Poll of Polls, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was currently leading Trump nationally, by 54 per cent to 42 per cent.

Biden leads Trump by 7 points nationwide

A new poll has revealed that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was currently leading US President Donald Trump by seven points nationwide, with just 18 days remaining for the November 3 election.

According to the new national Hill-HarrisX poll released on Thursday, 47 per cent of registered voters have said that they would cast their ballots for Biden if the election was held today, a 2-point spike from an October 3-6 survey, while 40 per cent said they would vote for Trump.

Three per cent of the voters said they would prefer someone else as their candidate for President and another 3 per cent do not plan to vote.

Seven per cent of the surveyed remains unsure.

The former Vice President was also leading Trump among independents, at 40 per cent versus 32 per cent.