Voters flock to Florida polls as US early voting nears record 30 million mark

Florida voters have flocked to early polling stations on the first day of in-person voting in a key state fought over relentlessly by US President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden with two weeks to go until the November 3 election.

A record number of nearly 30 million Americans have cast early ballots in person or by mail as voters adjust to the coronavirus pandemic.

More than 29.6 million votes either by mail or in person had been recorded in 44 states and Washington, DC, as of mid-afternoon on Monday, according to the US Elections Project at the University of Florida.

Voters have cast more than 21% of the overall total in 2016, when more than 136.6 million Americans cast ballots. In 2016, there were 5.9 million early votes by Oct. 23, 16 days before Election Day.

The battleground state Florida opened polls to early voting on Monday, with voters lined up wearing masks and at a social distance for the start of in-person voting.

At a Miami Beach polling station, Jackeline Maurice, a writer in her 40s, was excitedly snapping selfies with an "I voted" sticker on after casting her ballot for Biden.

"I've been waiting four years to vote," she said.

Maurice said she was "cautiously optimistic" about Biden’s prospects.

Biden leads Trump by 8.9 percentage points nationwide, according to a RealClearPolitics average of polls, and the Democrat has more modest leads in several battleground states.

The battle has played out in eight or nine swing states for months, but perhaps nowhere more intensely than Florida, where the state's prize of 29 electoral votes can decide who wins the presidency.

Florida’s 29 electoral votes is tied with New York, behind only California and Texas, in the race for the 270 Electoral College votes that determine the presidential winner.

Florida statewide polls show Biden is ahead by an average of 1.4 percentage points -- compared to 4.5 points less than two weeks ago.

Trump slams Republican critics amid warnings of November 'bloodbath'

US President Donald Trump hits out at "stupid" Republican critics from within his own party after growing Republican warnings of a "bloodbath" in the November 3 election.

‘Trump denied fact, lied to American people’

Biden dispatched his running mate Kamala Harris to Florida on Monday for a drive-in rally in Orlando and a voter mobilization event in Jacksonville.

"This man (Trump) had an opportunity to deal with (the coronavirus) but denied fact, denied science, and lied to the American people," Harris told supporters in Orlando.

Harris has called pandemic "the greatest failure of any presidential administration in the history of America."

Criss-crossing the US, Trump was on a western swing in battleground Arizona, where he won in 2016 but now trails Biden in statewide polling.

"You're lucky I'm your president," Trump told masses of protesters, many without masks and not practicing social distancing, gathered at his outdoor rally in Prescott, north of Phoenix.

Notwithstanding US national opinion polls that show him well behind Biden, Trump said, "We're going to win," he said. "I wouldn't have told you that maybe two, three weeks ago."

Trump said he would build the coronavirus-ravaged economy back to pre-pandemic levels and savaged Biden for wanting to "let socialists run wild in our country."

Trump and Biden will face off on Thursday in their final debate.

Biden tweeted that, "Together, we can put an end to the last four years of darkness, division, and chaos. We can unite, mend our wounds, and begin to heal."

US president not to leave office graciously if he loses 2020 election

US President Donald Trump will not leave office “graciously” if he loses the 2020 presidential election, says John Bolton.

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