Kathmandu: Some of the world's most influential newspapers and magazines have openly backed Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. On the eve of the election, The Economist, a popular London-based magazine, published an article in support of President Donald Trump's rival Joe Biden, explaining why Biden should be emphasized on the cover of the magazine.



The world's most influential economist favors economic liberalism and the open market economy. The magazine has been supporting one candidate in the US election since 1980.In 2016, the magazine backed Hillary Clinton. The newspaper said, "Biden is not magic, and winning the election will increase the prestige of the White House."Another influential newspaper, the New York Times, has already written an editorial in support of Biden. That newspaper is also considered to be an influential newspaper all over the world.



Supporting Biden, the newspaper said Biden would restore the spirit of the United States. The paper argues that Biden should win the election because the United States is weaker and more divided than it was four years ago.In 2016, the magazine backed Hillary Clinton. The newspaper said, "Biden is not magic, and winning the election will increase the prestige of the White House."



Another influential newspaper, the New York Times, has already written an editorial in support of Biden. That newspaper is also considered to be an influential newspaper all over the world.Supporting Biden, the newspaper said Biden would restore the spirit of the United States. The paper argues that Biden should win the election because the United States is weaker and more divided than it was four years ago.



The Washington Post has also published an editorial saying that the current president should be Biden. "Joe Biden is a very worthy candidate," the newspaper said in an editorial. He can handle the challenges of the next four years well.'Magazines such as USA Today and Los Angeles Times have also sided with Biden.

Influential media support for Trump's rival Biden

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden will rally supporters on Thursday in the battleground of Florida, visiting the same city hours apart and putting on full display their contrasting approaches to the resurgent coronavirus pandemic. Opinion polls show Biden with a significant edge nationally, but his lead is tighter in battleground states. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Wednesday showed Trump had essentially moved into a tie with Biden in Florida, with 49% saying they would vote for Biden and 47% for the president. With its 29 electoral votes, the state is a major prize in next Tuesday’s election. Trump will stage an outdoor rally in Tampa. Thousands of people have crowded together at recent Trump rallies, many eschewing masks despite public health recommendations. Biden, in contrast, will hold a drive-in rally later in Tampa where attendees will remain in their cars. He will host a similar event earlier in the day in Broward County in South Florida. In the days leading up to the election, the pandemic that has upended life across the United States this year, killing more than 227,000 people and causing millions of job losses, is roaring back. Trump this week has repeatedly dismissed the threat of the pandemic, claiming that his rivals and the news media would cease paying attention to it after the election, even as his counterparts in Europe scrambled to respond to the disease’s resurgence this fall. In the weeks leading up to the 2018 midterm congressional elections, Trump himself drummed up what he described as a national security crisis, fixating on caravans of migrants approaching the U.S.-Mexico border. He dropped the issue after a resounding Republican defeat that gave Democrats control of the House of Representatives. In the Reuters/Ipsos poll in Florida, 48% of likely voters said Biden would be better at handling the pandemic, while 42% said Trump would be better. Some 52% said Trump would be better at managing the economy, against 41% for Biden. Following his own bout with coronavirus, the president has conducted a hectic campaign schedule in the days leading up to the election, holding as many as three rallies a day in different states, while Biden has taken a more measured tack - even spending two days this week close to his home base of Delaware. More than 76.5 million people have cast early in-person and mail ballots, according to data compiled by the U.S. Elections Project at the University of Florida. That is a record-setting pace and more than 53% of the total 2016 turnout. In a significant setback for Republicans in two battleground states, the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to block extensions for receiving mail-in votes in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Trump has made unfounded claims that voting by mail, a common practice in U.S. elections, leads to widespread fraud.



RETURN TO MIDWEST Trump plans to return to the Midwest on Friday, campaigning in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. In all, he plans to visit 10 states in the last week of the campaign and will host 11 rallies in the final 48 hours, a campaign official said. After a briefing from public health officials on Wednesday, Biden slammed what he called the Trump administration’s disregard for safety and failure to develop a plan to contain COVID-19. “The longer he’s in charge the more reckless he gets,” Biden told reporters, before casting his own vote in Wilmington, Delaware. Trump, who continues to downplay the threat posed by the virus, has accused Biden of wanting to institute new lockdowns across the nation that would further damage the economy. In the battleground state of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia prosecutor issued a stark warning for Trump campaign poll-watchers not to overstep their bounds as they search for voter fraud. The Trump campaign has said it is recruiting an “army” of 50,000 volunteers to monitor polling places, an effort Democrats say could suppress the vote. “Keep your Proud Boys, goon squads, and uncertified ‘poll watchers’ out of our city, Mr. President,” Democratic Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner said in a statement. “Break the law here, and I’ve got something for you.” If Trump does appear to be interfering with vote counting or manipulating poll results after Election Day, dozens of activist groups who claim to represent millions of Americans from both political parties plan to hit the streets in protest. The "Protect the Results" coalition of over 130 groups, from Planned Parenthood to Republicans for the Rule of Law, has about 400 events protecttheresults.com planned to date. “We can’t assume that Donald Trump will respect the peaceful transfer of power,” said Sean Eldridge, the founder and president of Stand Up America.

Trump, Biden to take campaign battle to critical battleground: Florida

(Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has promised to make passing the LGBTQ rights legislation known as the Equality Act a top priority, hoping to sign what would be a landmark civil rights law within 100 days should he win Tuesday’s election.



Biden, a leading voice for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer rights as vice president under Barack Obama from 2009 to 2017, also pledged in an interview with the Philadelphia Gay News to expand queer rights internationally by making equality a centerpiece of U.S. diplomacy should he win the election and assume office in January.



Biden has championed the Equality Act before, but his priority for the issue is significant given the urgency of the coronavirus pandemic and a host of other executive orders and regulatory actions that would compete for attention in the early days of a Biden administration.He outlined his agenda for LGBTQ rights in an email interview with Philadelphia Gay News publisher Mark Segal, a nationally known advocate for gay rights since the 1970s.



“I will make enactment of the Equality Act a top legislative priority during my first 100 days - a priority that Donald Trump opposes,” Biden said of the Republican incumbent he is challenging.The Trump administration opposed the Equality Act, saying it would “undermine parental and conscience rights,” and has also restricted queer rights in the name of religious liberty. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Biden’s interview.The Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives passed the Equality Act in 2019, but the legislation stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate. 



Biden would need the Democrats to hold the House and take control of the Senate to ensure passage.The Equality Act would protect U.S. citizens from discrimination based on sexual identity and gender identity by amending the Civil Rights Act of 1964, one of the most revered accomplishments of the civil rights movement, which banned discrimination based on race, religion, sex and national origin.



On the international front, Biden also promised to defend American diplomats who speak out for LGBTQ rights in countries that are hostile to queer people and promised to use “America’s full range of diplomatic tools,” including private diplomacy, public statements and United Nations agencies, to promote equality.“I’ll stand up to bullies and once more put human rights at the center of America’s engagement with the world,” Biden said.

Biden, in LGBTQ interview, vows to pass Equality Act in first 100 days

(Reuters) - President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden on Monday are down to the final full week of campaigning before the Nov. 3 election, as surging coronavirus cases and a COVID-19 outbreak within Vice President Mike Pence’s staff keep the focus of the race on the pandemic. Trump claimed progress in combating the disease even as the United States set records in recent days for daily infections, while Pence forged ahead with campaigning on Sunday despite close aides testing positive. Biden accused the president of surrendering to the pandemic that has killed about 225,000 people in the United States. With eight days to go before Election Day, more than 59.1 million Americans have already voted in person or by mail, a pace of early voting that could lead to the highest turnout rate in more than a century, according to data from the U.S. Elections Project at the University of Florida. On Monday, Trump will head to Pennsylvania, a critical swing state being heavily courted with frequent visits by both candidates, and speak at rallies in Allentown, Lititz and Martinsburg. He is set for multiple trips to Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin this week, as well as visits to Nebraska, Arizona and Nevada. Biden was expected to remain in his home state of Delaware on Monday. He is scheduled to travel to Georgia on Tuesday, with stops in Atlanta and Warm Springs, a town of about 400 people where Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who took office during the Great Depression and rolled out his New Deal recovery program, died in 1945. That push in the Southern state, which went for Trump in 2016 by about 5 percentage points and has not backed a Democratic presidential candidate since 1992, shows Biden’s effort to expand his party’s reach as polls show a competitive race in the state. Despite Biden’s solid lead in national opinion polls, the contest in the most critical battleground states such as Florida and Pennsylvania that could decide the outcome appears closer. Biden will be aided with an appearance in Orlando, Florida, on Tuesday by former President Barack Obama, under whom he served as vice president.

Trump, Biden in final full week of campaigning as virus looms large

(Reuters) - As the 2020 presidential election enters its final week, a majority of Americans appear ready to accept the result of an exhausting campaign even if their preferred candidate loses, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found. Its latest survey, conducted from Oct. 13-20, shows that 79% of all Americans, including 59% of those who want to re-elect President Donald Trump, will accept a win by Democratic challenger Joe Biden even if they may not support a Biden presidency. Among those Trump supporters who said they would not accept a Biden victory, 16% said they would do something to challenge a Democratic win such as protesting in public or resorting to violence. The poll also found that 73% of Americans, including 57% of Biden supporters, would similarly accept a Trump victory. Among those who said they would not accept a Trump win, 22% said they would take action to challenge the result. U.S. election officials are dealing with a series of challenges this year that have raised concerns about the public’s confidence in the result. Top national security officials warned last week that Russia and Iran have been hacking into U.S. voting systems and looking for ways to undermine the election. Trump also has repeatedly questioned the integrity of U.S. elections, arguing that the process is “rigged” against him and repeatedly asserting without evidence that the surge in mail-in voting this year will increase the likelihood of voter fraud. He has refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if the vote count indicates he has lost. So far, at least, a majority of the U.S. public appears ready to accept the result. Donald Green, a political scientist at Columbia University, said the poll results ease his concerns about post-election violence. But he warned that if the election is close, or one candidate can make a credible accusation of voter fraud, it could spark wider discontent and protests than the poll suggests. “This is why many people who oppose Trump are holding their breath and hoping for a lopsided outcome that is not up for grabs,” Green said. The latest Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Biden leads Trump by 8 percentage points nationally: 51% of likely voters say they are backing the Democratic challenger while 43% are voting for the president. Biden also is ahead in Wisconsin and Michigan, but the race appears to be much closer in other battleground states including Pennsylvania, Florida, Arizona and North Carolina. The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online, in English, throughout the United States. It gathered responses from 2,649 American adults, including 1,039 who said they had voted for Trump or were planning to vote for him, and 1,153 who said they were similarly backing Biden. The poll has a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of 4 percentage points.

Majority will accept result of U.S. election, even if they dislike the winner: Reuters/Ipsos poll

(Reuters) - President Donald Trump will go on the offensive against Democratic rival Joe Biden on Sunday with a campaign trip to New Hampshire, a state he narrowly lost in 2016 but is trying to reclaim in this year’s White House race. With nine days left until the Nov. 3 U.S. elections, the Republican president is storming his way through top battleground states in a late push to make up ground against Biden, who leads in national opinion polls. Opinion polls in many of the most vital swing states that will decide the election show a closer race. New Hampshire, which Trump lost to Democrat Hillary Clinton by about 3,000 votes in 2016, has not been considered a top-tier battleground, and most polls show Biden with a comfortable edge in the New England state. But Trump is running out of time and opportunities to change minds and shift the race in his favor. More than 56.5 million Americans have already voted in person or by mail, a pace of early voting that could lead to the highest voter turnout rate in more than a century, according to data from the U.S. Elections Project. After voting early in his home state of Florida on Saturday, Trump raced through rallies in three states - North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin - where he promised the end of the coronavirus pandemic was in sight and said Biden would threaten jobs by pushing for more COVID-19 restrictions. In Ohio, Trump said his campaign was doing well and he was not worried about the public opinion polls. “We have 10 days, and nothing worries me,” he said. On his visit to New Hampshire, Trump will hold a rally in Manchester. He has suggested he might hold five rallies a day down the final stretch before the election. Biden, who made two campaign stops in Pennsylvania on Saturday, has no public schedule for Sunday, although the former vice president often makes a trip to church. During his swing through Pennsylvania, Biden renewed his criticism of Trump for not taking the health crisis seriously enough and warned of a resurgence during the winter months of the virus, which has killed more than 224,000 Americans and is on the rise in several battleground states. “It’s going to be a dark winter ahead unless we change our ways,” he said of Trump’s attempts to contain the coronavirus. The United States set a single-day record of more than 84,000 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, according to a Reuters tally, with the spike in infections hitting election swing states Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Late on Saturday a spokesman for Vice President Mike Pence disclosed that Marc Short, Pence’s chief of staff, had tested positive for the new coronavirus. Pence and his wife tested negative earlier in the day and the vice president will not alter his schedule, the spokesman said. Concern about the health risks of voting in crowded polling places on Election Day has helped drive the stampede to vote, as many states have increased early voting and vote-by-mail opportunities. In New York state, voters jammed polling places and stood in line for hours to cast ballots on the state’s first day of early voting on Saturday. Long lines formed before polls opened across New York City and Long Island, videos on social media showed.

Trump goes on offensive against Biden with trip to New Hampshire

(Reuters) - More than 50 million Americans have cast ballots in the U.S. presidential election with 11 days to go in the campaign, a pace that could lead to the highest voter turnout in over a century, according to data from the U.S. Elections Project on Friday.



The eye-popping figure is a sign of intense interest in the contest between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden, as well as Americans’ desire to reduce their risk of exposure to COVID-19, which has killed more than 221,000 people across the United States.Many states have expanded in-person early voting and mail-in ballots ahead of Election Day on Nov. 3, as a safer way to vote during the coronavirus pandemic.



The high level of early voting has led Michael McDonald, the University of Florida professor who administers the U.S. Elections Project, to predict a record turnout of about 150 million, representing 65% of eligible voters, the highest rate since 1908.In Texas, the level of voting has already surpassed 70% of the total turnout in 2016.The pandemic has upended campaign traditions and its effects still are being felt. 



Americans may find themselves waiting days or weeks to know who won as election officials count tens of millions of mail-in votes.On Friday, Trump will hold rallies in the battleground state of Florida, where opinion polls show a tight race and over 4 million votes have already been cast, approaching half the total four years ago. 



Biden will deliver a speech in his home state of Delaware on his plans for leading a recovery from the pandemic.

More than 50 million Americans have cast ballots in presidential election

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Reuters) - President Donald Trump and rival Joe Biden begin a sprint through the final 11 days of the U.S. presidential race on Friday, a day after battling over the COVID-19 pandemic and personal integrity in their second and final debate. Trump, 74, will hold two rallies in the battleground state of Florida, where opinion polls show a tight race. Biden, 77, will deliver a speech in his home state of Delaware on his plans for leading a recovery from the pandemic. More than 47 million Americans already have cast ballots in person or through the mail - roughly eight times the number of early votes cast at about the same point in 2016 - giving Trump, who is trailing in national opinion polls, fewer opportunities to change minds before voting ends on November 3. The pandemic has upended campaign traditions and its effects still are being felt. Americans may find themselves waiting days or weeks to know who won as election officials count tens of millions of mail-in votes. Biden enters the final days of the race with more cash than Trump. The Democrat raised about $130 million during the Oct. 1-14 period, about three times the roughly $44 million raised by the Republican Trump’s campaign, according to disclosures filed on Thursday with the Federal Election Commission. In their debate on Thursday night, Biden renewed his frequent campaign-trail attacks on Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 221,000 people in the United States and cost millions their jobs. “Anyone who’s responsible for that many deaths should not remain president of the United States of America,” Biden said. Biden said Trump was too slow to warn the public about the severity of the pandemic and too quick to dismiss its threat, and had failed to develop a plan for recovery. Trump defended his handling of the health crisis, asserting the worst was over. COVID-19 has emerged as the top issue in the race, and polls show Americans trust Biden more than Trump to handle the health crisis, further complicating the president’s re-election bid.



TRUMP ATTACKS During the debate, Trump also repeated his accusations that Biden and his son Hunter engaged in unethical practices in China and Ukraine. No evidence has been verified to support the allegations, which Biden called false. He said Trump was trying to distract from his failures as president on other issues. Trump pounced on a late-debate Biden remark that his environmental plan would transition the United States away from oil and towards renewable energy sources. “He is going to destroy the oil industry,” Trump said. “Will you remember that, Texas? Will you remember that, Pennsylvania?” Biden’s COVID-19 speech in Delaware on Friday follows his promises to improve access to testing and to listen to the advice of health officials and scientists, with whom Trump often feuds. Biden has criticized Trump for returning to crowded public rallies, which usually include little social distancing and few people wearing protective masks. Trump, who was diagnosed with COVID-19 in early October and spent three nights in the hospital, mocks Biden for his cautiousness.



FOCUS ON FLORIDA Florida, Trump’s next stop on the campaign trail, is a must-win for the president and among the battleground states likely to decide the election. Both candidates have showered attention on, and made repeated visits to, the state, where a Reuters/Ipsos poll this week found Biden moving into a slight lead after being in a statistical tie a week earlier. Trump will begin his visit to Florida at the Villages, a sprawling retirement center in central Florida that is a hotbed of political activity and a regular stop for Republican candidates. Polls have shown Trump, who won voters above the age of 65 by 17 percentage points in 2016, to be running even or trailing Biden with senior voters in the state this year, a sign of possible trouble for the president. In the evening, Trump will hold an airport rally in Pensacola in Florida’s heavily Republican northwestern panhandle, to urge supporters to vote early. Trump will spend the night in Florida before casting his own vote on Saturday in West Palm Beach. Former President Barack Obama, with whom Biden served as vice president for eight years, will campaign in Florida on Saturday, Biden’s campaign said. Obama made his campaign-trail debut for Biden in Pennsylvania on Wednesday.

Debates over, Trump and Biden enter campaign's 11-day homestretch

(Reuters) - Imagine that the polls have closed in Florida, counties are beginning to report early vote counts, and it looks like former Vice President Joe Biden is way ahead. 



An hour later, Pennsylvania counties begin to report and it seems to be a slam dunk for U.S. President Donald Trump.Don’t be fooled, voting experts and academics say. Early vote counts in the most competitive, battleground states can be particularly misleading this election because of the surge in mail-in or absentee ballots, and the different ways that they are processed.



The states that count mail-in votes before Election Day are likely to give Biden an early lead, since opinion polls and early voting data suggest those ballots favor the Democrat. Conversely, the states that do not tally mail-in votes until Nov. 3 will likely swing initially for Trump.



These so-called red or blue mirages will disappear as more ballots are counted, though experts say it may take days or even weeks to process the huge number of mail-in ballots, spurred by voters seeking to avoid crowded polling stations because of the COVID-19 pandemic.



“Be patient,” said Gerry Cohen, a member of the Wake County Board of Elections in North Carolina. “You need to count all of the votes, and that’s going to take some time.”Here is what to expect in some of the most bitterly contested states that will determine the next U.S. president.



BLUE MIRAGE IN FLORIDA AND NORTH CAROLINAFlorida and North Carolina allow election officials to begin processing and counting mail-in ballots weeks before Election Day, and the results of those counts are expected to be released as soon as polls close on Nov. 3.



If both states follow that schedule, it is likely that Biden will appear to be ahead initially, as the latest Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll shows that people who already have voted in Florida and North Carolina support the Democratic challenger by a more than 2-to-1 margin over the president.



A blue mirage is not expected to last long in either state. Experts say they expect Florida and North Carolina to finish counting most of their mail-in and in-person ballots before the end of the night.RED MIRAGE IN THE RUST BELTIn Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, mail-in ballots cannot be counted until Election Day. 



While Michigan did recently pass a law that allows many cities to start processing mail-in ballots, such as opening ballot envelopes, the day before the election, they cannot begin to count votes.Because mail-in ballots typically take longer to count than ballots cast in person, the initial results could skew Republican.



 Then, some experts say, expect a “blue shift” as election officials wade through the piles of mail-in ballots.Pennsylvania and Wisconsin may be slowed by their lack of experience with high volumes of mail-in ballots. About one in 20 votes in the two states were cast by mail in the 2018 congressional election, compared to a quarter of Michigan’s votes and about a third of Florida’s.Pennsylvania’s vote counting could go on for days. Democrats in the state recently won a victory in the U.S. Supreme Court to allow officials to accept mail-in ballots up to three days after the election as long as they are postmarked by Nov. 3.“Something I’m prepared for on election night is for Pennsylvania to look more Republican than it may actually be, whoever ends up winning the state,” said Kyle Kondik, a political analyst at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics.



Ballots in Wisconsin and Michigan must arrive by Election Day, although litigation is under way over whether the states should count ballots that arrive late if postmarked by Nov. 3.



EXPECT TO WAIT FOR ARIZONA



On election night in 2018, Arizona Republican Martha McSally appeared to be on the road to victory in the state’s U.S. Senate race, telling her supporters she was going “to bed with a lead of over 14,000 votes.”



Six days later, McSally conceded the race to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema as election officials tallied hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots, including many from the Democratic-leaning metropolitan areas of Phoenix and Tucson that were handed in at voting centers on Election Day.



Arizona officials said they hope it will take less time to count ballots this year as Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, has upgraded its equipment and added an extra week to handle early mail-in ballots. But if the race is close, it could still take days to fully count the votes.



That would be “an indication of things going the way they’re supposed to,” said C. Murphy Hebert, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Secretary of State. “The process is complex, and we would just invite folks to be patient.”

Explainer: Red mirage, blue mirage - Beware of early U.S. election wins

West Coast (Yahoo News): With only two weeks left until Election Day, Joe Biden’s lead over President Trump has widened to 11 percentage points — Biden’s biggest margin among likely voters in any Yahoo News/YouGov poll to date. The survey, which was conducted from October 16 to 18, shows that a majority of likely voters (51 percent) now say they are voting for the Democratic nominee, while just 40 percent say they are voting for Trump. Biden’s lead, which is identical among registered voters, has grown by three points since last week’s Yahoo News/YouGov poll. Yahoo News has reported that the president has struggled to rebound over the past three weeks from a widely panned first debate performance and a COVID-19 outbreak that sent him to the hospital and sickened others in and around the White House. Yet the main reason Trump appears to have fallen even further behind Biden in recent days is that coronavirus cases are peaking just as the campaign is coming to a close. On Friday, new daily cases cleared 70,000 nationwide for the first time since July; hospitalizations are increasing in 39 states, and are at or near their all-time peak in 16 states. Trump vented his frustration with the coronavirus on a campaign call Monday, saying, “People are tired of COVID. I have these huge rallies. People are saying, ‘Whatever. Just leave us alone.’ They’re tired of it. People are tired of hearing [Anthony] Fauci and all these idiots.” Tired or not, Americans have growing concerns about Trump’s leadership amid a resurgent pandemic — and those concerns appear to be dimming his hopes of a comeback. Nearly two-thirds of registered voters (63 percent) now say the “number of cases is increasing,” up sharply from 57 percent last week and 48 percent the week before that. A full 60 percent think the pandemic will get worse this fall; only 15 percent think it will get better. As a result, Biden’s existing advantage over Trump on the question of who would do a better job handling COVID-19 — the top issue of 2020 — has nearly tripled from 7 points two weeks ago (45 percent to 38 percent) to 19 points today (52 percent to 33 percent). Sixty-three percent say Trump has not been wearing a mask or social distancing appropriately; 60 percent say he has not followed the advice of medical experts closely enough; and 59 percent say he has underestimated the risks of COVID-19 — something that just 8 percent of registered voters say about Biden. In dealing with the pandemic, a majority (54 percent) say the former vice president has behaved appropriately. Key demographic groups are moving away from Trump in response. Right now, the president is losing independents, 39 percent to 37 percent; he won them by 4 points in 2016. He is losing suburban voters by 14 points (50 percent to 36 percent); he also won them by 4 points in 2016. Trump’s current leads among white voters (7 points) and seniors (3 points) are less than half of what they were four years ago (20 points and 7 points, respectively). Nine percent of 2016 Trump voters now say they are voting for Biden; just 4 percent of 2016 Hillary Clinton voters say they are voting for Trump. Meanwhile, the president is running out of time to resurrect his reelection bid. Just 5 percent of likely voters remain undecided, and a mere 3 percent say there is still “a chance I will change my mind” in the next two weeks. Even worse for Trump is that his supporters appear far more open to flipping than Biden’s, with just 1 percent of Biden voters saying they could still change their minds versus 7 percent of Trump voters. With early voting well underway across the country, the percentage of ballots already cast is growing rapidly — and Biden is banking far more votes than Trump. Last week, 17 percent of likely voters said they had already voted; this week, that percentage has more than doubled, to 38 percent. Given the inherent lag of mail balloting and recent nature of most of these votes — 75 percent of early voters say they voted during the past week — such numbers suggest that the early vote tally could soon hit an unprecedented 60 million. The partisan split between early voting and Election Day voting is striking. Yahoo News and YouGov estimate that among the ballots already cast, Biden leads Trump, 71 percent to 25 percent. A majority (52 percent) of Biden voters say they have already voted, with 43 percent choosing to mail their ballot and 9 percent choosing to vote early in person. In contrast, just 24 percent of Trump voters have cast their ballots so far: 17 percent by mail, 7 percent in person. Half of Trump voters say they will wait until Election Day to vote in person, versus just 16 percent of Biden voters. It remains to be seen whether enough Trump voters show up on Nov. 3 to overcome Biden’s early lead. But the poll suggests that Trump’s two biggest remaining opportunities to shake up the campaign might not pack much of a punch. The president had hoped that nominating conservative Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, for instance, would rally voters to his side. Yet support for Barrett’s confirmation actually slipped 8 points (flipping from 44-40 percent in favor to 44-40 percent opposed) during the past week, in part because a plurality of registered voters (31 percent to 21 percent) now think that the court will overturn Roe v. Wade if she joins it — a decision they would oppose by a 61 to 22 percent margin. Likewise, a similar plurality (27 percent to 19 percent) thinks a court with Barrett on it would overturn the Affordable Care Act — a decision voters would oppose by a 50 to 30 percent margin. At the same time, interest in the final presidential debate — perhaps Trump’s last chance to change the dynamic of the race — is waning. Just 41 percent of registered voters say they plan to watch on Oct. 22, compared with 53 percent who said they had been planning to watch the first debate. Interest is even lower (34 percent) among those who are either undecided or say they could still change their minds — that is, the voters Trump needs to reach. One last sign of trouble for the president is that for most of the year, registered voters have expected him to beat Biden. They no longer do. On Sept. 11, 43 percent said Trump was likely to win; just 39 percent said the same about Biden. But now, one month later, 44 percent pick Biden as the likely winner. Just 38 percent still think Trump will win.

The tide turns against Trump as Biden surges to his largest-ever lead among likely voters

(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden will court early voters as their campaigns step up events ahead of their final debate this week. Concern about crowds at polling stations during the coronavirus pandemic has driven far larger numbers than usual to vote early, ahead of the November 3 election day.



As reported on Reuters, Trump will head on Sunday to Nevada, a battleground state where more than 100,000 voters have already cast ballots, according to state data. The Republican president will campaign every day leading up to Thursday’s debate in Florida, including stops in Arizona and North Carolina, campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said.



Biden heads on Sunday to North Carolina, where 1.2 million voters have cast their ballots, according to state data. His pick for vice president, Kamala Harris, will return to the campaign trail on Monday with a visit to Florida to mark that state’s first day of early, in-person voting.



So far nearly 26 million people have cast a ballot in the election, shattering records, according to the U.S. Elections Project, run by the University of Florida.



While Trump lags in opinion polls at a national level and in many battleground states, Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon said over the weekend that the national figures are misleading because must-win states are close.



“We cannot become complacent because the very searing truth is that Donald Trump can still win this race, and every indication we have shown that this thing is going to come down to the wire,” she wrote in a memo to donors.



U.S. presidential elections are determined by electoral votes, allotted to U.S. states and territories based largely on their populations, rather than by a tally of the popular vote nationwide. This makes for a close focus by campaigns on states that could go either way.



Opinion polls have shown a high level of concern among voters about the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 218,000 people in the United States and hammered the economy.



That includes young people. Among likely voters aged 34 and under surveyed on their top concern in choosing a president, COVID-19 was the top concern for 25%, while jobs and the economy were named by 20%, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted between Sept. 29 and Oct. 13.

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