FAST DOWNLOAD
Early voting options have been gaining popularity in the United States, with elections held on the first Tuesday in November.
Early voting for the November 5 presidential election in the United States began on Friday in Minnesota, South Dakota and Virginia, kicking off the final stretch in the race for the White House between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump .
Voters eager to be the first to have their say formed long lines early at polling stations in those three states. Throughout October, voters in key election states such as Michigan, Nevada and Arizona will also have the opportunity to vote early.
In the city of Arlington, Virginia , just outside Washington , prominent Democratic politicians such as Senator Tim Kaine and Congressman Don Beyer gathered early to encourage voters.
Kaine, who was Hillary Clinton’s vice presidential candidate in 2016 , described the election as “the most important election of my lifetime.”
“This battle is between those who build and those who destroy. We’re up against the person who has done the most destruction in the history of American politics: Donald Trump. And the question is whether we’re going to stand up to people like him,” Kaine told a crowd of 100.
The electoral atmosphere was palpable in the plaza where the event took place, in front of the voting center. The local Democratic Party had set up tents to inform passersby and there were blue banners, the color of the Democrats, with slogans such as “Virginia for Harris” and “Virginia votes early.”
Minnesota and South Dakota , however, have a different system. These states are part of a group of 23 that allow voters to hand-deliver their ballots to a state elections department official instead of mailing them in, so they don’t actually have to drop them off at a ballot box.
In any case, these early voting options have been gaining popularity in the United States because elections are always held on the first Tuesday in November, a workday when Americans still have work and family obligations.
According to official data, in the 2020 elections, in each of the states that began early voting today, 40% of Virginians voted early in person, while in Minnesota the figure reached 57% and in South Dakota, 20%.
Across the United States in the pandemic-ravaged 2020 election, more than 69% of votes were cast by mail or early deposit of ballots in ballot boxes, according to data from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology data center .
The start of early voting comes after a particularly turbulent summer, in which President Joe Biden announced he was ending his campaign and handing over the baton to Vice President Kamala Harris , and in which former President and Republican candidate Donald Trump has suffered two assassination attempts.
Polls are currently predicting an especially close race between Harris and Trump, with everything depending on the results in seven key states : Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada .
