U.S. Elections: Candidates gear up for Election Day amid record early voting in tight race
By the eve of Election Day, over 77 million people participated in early voting, either in person or through the mail, leading some officials to predict low turnout at polling sites, especially in states like Georgia.
This surge is mainly linked to Trump encouraging his supporters to vote early, a shift from his 2020 stance favouring in-person voting.
Meanwhile, Democrats, who largely voted early during the pandemic in 2020, are expected to have more in-person voters this time.
The balance between both parties is crucial for interpreting the early returns, and it falls to the campaigns to identify which voters they still need to mobilise for Tuesday. In this regard, Democrats may have an edge.
Campaign-wise, Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee have outsourced much of their get-out-the-vote efforts to external groups, including one significantly funded by billionaire ally Elon Musk. In contrast, Kamala Harris has been employing a more traditional strategy, with over 2,500 paid staffers and 357 offices in battleground states alone.
On Election Day, Trump is expected to spend the early hours in Michigan, where he will hold a final late-night rally in Grand Rapids. He will then head to Florida to vote in person—despite earlier intentions to vote early—and will host a campaign watch party in Palm Beach that evening.
On the other hand, Harris plans to attend an Election Night party at Howard University in Washington, where she graduated in 1986, with no other public engagements scheduled for the day.
