Large numbers of people voted by mail or at the first in-person voting sites in the United States
Washington:
More than 80 million Americans voted in the U.S. presidential election, according to a tally Thursday from the University of Florida’s U.S. Elections Project, paving the way for the highest turnout in more than a century.
The record pace, over 58% of the total turnout in 2016, reflects intense interest in the vote, in which outgoing President Donald Trump, a Republican, faces Democratic candidate Joe Biden, a former vice president.
Large numbers of people voted by mail or at the first in-person voting sites amid fears the coronavirus could spread to occupied polling places on election day.
Trump follows Biden in national opinion polls, with most voters saying they disapprove of the Trump administration’s handling of COVID-19, which has killed more than 227,000 people in the United States, with the number of cases breaking new records dailies as Election Day approaches Tuesday.
Democrats hold a significant advantage in early voting due to their adoption of postal voting, which Republicans have historically cast in large numbers but have avoided amid repeated and unfounded attacks by Trump, who says the system is subject to widespread fraud.
Experts predicted that the turnout will easily exceed the 138 million people who voted in the 2016 presidential election won by Trump. Only 47 million votes were cast before election day in 2016.
In 20 states that report party registration data, 18.2 million registered Democrats have already voted, compared with 11.5 million Republicans and 8.8 million without party affiliation. The data does not indicate for whom the votes were cast.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
