MIAMI | Early voting began Monday in Florida, the largest of the key presidential election states, where Donald Trump and Joe Biden are neck and neck in the polls.
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In the morning, many masked voters lined up at Miami Beach City Hall. “I’ve been waiting to vote for four years,” rejoices Jackeline Maurice, a 40-year-old Democratic voter.
In Hialeah, a popular district of Miami where many Cuban-Americans live, Ulysses Liriano, 51, wearing a hat in the colors of the American flag, waits his turn to deposit his ballot in the ballot box.
His choice? Trump, because “he favored the economy” before the coronavirus, he says. “He’s a person like us,” adds the retiree.
Fifteen days before the poll, the tenant of the White House traveled to Arizona, another coveted state, to continue his marathon of meetings started a week ago after claiming to be “cured” of COVID-19 .
“People are tired of hearing about the pandemic,” hammered the president, preferring not to dwell on this health crisis which is, he insists, on the verge of ending.
“You assholes!”
“You watch CNN, they only talk about this. COVID, COVID, pandemic, COVID, COVID, COVID … ”.
“They try to dissuade people from voting. But people are not doing the trick, CNN, you morons! ” he added.
A few hours earlier, in a telephone exchange with members of his campaign team, he had once again attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci, a highly respected member of his own coronavirus crisis unit.
People “are tired of hearing Fauci and all those idiots,” he said, as the pandemic has claimed nearly 220,000 lives in the United States.
The Democratic candidate had no public meeting on his agenda, devoting the day, according to American media, to the preparation of the last televised debate, scheduled for Thursday.
It was Joe Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, who made the trip to Florida, resuming the field campaign four days after having suspended it due to cases of coronavirus in his entourage.
She traveled to Orlando and Jacksonville to call for this in-person vote in advance.
Early voting is being scrutinized with particular attention this year, as it continues to break records, sometimes giving rise to long lines in the states where it started.
By D-15, more than 29 million Americans across the country have already voted by mail or in person, which could represent nearly a fifth of total turnout at this point, according to the independent Elections Project.
Democrats have called for voting in advance, as a precautionary measure due to the pandemic.
Opposite, the Trump camp denounces, without supporting evidence, an approach likely to “fake” the results, and promises that his voters will come, them, in droves on November 3 to lie to the polls giving him the beat.
The outgoing president is lagging behind in polls nationally and in most of the winning states.
Battalions of lawyers
Donald Trump has already multiplied campaign rallies in Florida, a state he won in 2016 and which he cannot afford to let down this year. He narrowed the gap in voting intentions thanks to two studies from institutes deemed more favorable to Republicans: Joe Biden has only a lead of 1.4 points on average, against +4.5 he twelve days ago.
But the former Democratic vice-president has also visited the southeastern state three times, especially wooing retirees, a key electorate who appears to be leaning in his favor after overwhelmingly voting for the Republican billionaire. Four years ago.
On election night, due to this close race, a lot of spotlight will be on Florida, its 14 million voters and its large contingent of 29 electorate voters considered crucial to achieve the majority of 270 needed to access the House. -White.
In 2000, the presidential election between Al Gore and George W. Bush was played out with a few hundred votes in this state, after a legal battle and several recounts.
According to the newspaper Miami herald, the two camps have already deployed battalions of lawyers on the spot in case the result of the election is, once again, both close and decisive for national victory.