An employee adds a stack of mail-in ballots to a machine that automatically places the ballots in envelopes at Runbeck Election Services on Sept. 25, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona. The company prints mail-in ballots for 30 states and Washington D.C. (Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — With exactly two weeks until Election Day, millions of Americans have already cast their ballots via the mail or in person as Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump pursue voters through the battleground states.
Early in-person absentee voting kicked off Tuesday in Wisconsin, adding to the list of swing states where voters have already begun casting ballots, the Wisconsin Examiner reported.
Georgia, another battleground, saw record early voter turnout in its first week, amassing more than 1.4 million ballots cast, more than a quarter of the entire voter turnout total in the 2020 presidential election, the Georgia Recorder reported.
Two national polls released Tuesday show Harris with an edge, particularly among young voters. Reuters/Ipsos polling conducted from Oct. 16 through Monday found Harris up by a narrow 3 points, hardly a change from Ipsos’ findings the previous week.
The latest quarterly CNBC/Generation Lab survey found Harris commanding a 20-point lead among 18-to-34-year-olds.
All eyes on Latino voters
The Harris campaign early Tuesday alerted the press to an “opportunity agenda for Latino men.”
The proposal promises to provide 1 million forgivable loans up to $20,000 for Latino men “and others” in start-up funding, eliminate college degree requirements on certain jobs, and encourage first-time home ownership among Latinos by building affordable homes and offer a $25,000 tax break for new buyers — two policy ideas for all Americans she’s been touting for months.
Poll numbers released Monday showed Harris continuing to outperform Trump among Latino voters in the battlegrounds of Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
A group of Christian Latinos showered Trump with praise in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday. With hands on Trump’s shoulders, religious leaders prayed over him at a roundtable event held at the Trump National Doral Golf Club.
Guillermo Maldonado, who founded the King Jesus International Ministry, said the election is “not a war between the left and the right. This is a war between good and evil. We can fight that, and we need spiritual weapons.”
“Father, we anointed him today, we anointed him to be the 47th president of the United States to restore the Biblical values. No weapon formed against him shall prosper,” Maldonado, who goes by the title ‘apostle,’ continued in his prayer over Trump. The event streamed live on C-SPAN.
Immediately after the prayer, Trump’s signature campaign song, “YMCA” by the Village People, blared and the roundtable leaders began passing books and hats for him to sign.
During the roundtable, Trump accused Harris of “sleeping” and “taking a day off.” He also, again, accused her of having a “low I.Q.”
“There’s something wrong with her,” he told the crowd.
Liz Cheney, CNN and Springsteen
Harris campaigned Monday with former U.S. House Republican Liz Cheney in suburban areas of three states — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Cheney is the daughter of former GOP Vice President Dick Cheney, who is also backing Harris.
“For me, every single thing in my experience and in my background has played a part in my decision to endorse Vice President Harris,” said Liz Cheney, who was once the third-highest-ranking House Republican. “That begins with the fact that I’m a conservative and I know that the most conservative of all conservative principles is being faithful to the Constitution.”
According to her publicly available schedule, the vice president was scheduled to record two interviews Tuesday afternoon with NBC and Telemundo. And on Wednesday night at 9 Eastern, she’ll participate in a CNN town hall in Pennsylvania moderated by anchor Anderson Cooper.
Then on Thursday, Harris and former President Barack Obama will lead a “Get Out the Vote” rally, featuring a performance by Bruce Springsteen, in Georgia to encourage early voting.
On Friday the vice president will travel to Houston, Texas, to campaign on abortion rights. She will be accompanied by Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, who’s trying to unseat U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.
Trump cancels appearances, plans Georgia rallies
Trump canceled a scheduled appearance Tuesday at an event titled “Make America Healthy Again,” which was to feature guests Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and former Democratic lawmaker-turned-Republican Tulsi Gabbard.
Trump’s keynote speech set for Tuesday at a National Rifle Association event in Georgia was also canceled “due to scheduling conflicts.”
The former president also scrapped a planned early October interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” and recent scheduled appearances on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” and NBC News.
Trump is scheduled to host a rally Tuesday night in Greensboro, North Carolina, and on Wednesday his schedule shows two events — a “Believers and Ballots Faith Town Hall” in Zebulon, Georgia, with the state’s Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, as well as a rally for Turning Point PAC and Turning Point Action in Duluth, Georgia.
Trump is scheduled to deliver the keynote speech Thursday night in Las Vegas, Nevada, for Turning Point’s “United for Change Rally.”
Politico reported Tuesday that the former president will record an interview Friday with popular podcast host Joe Rogan at his studio in Austin, Texas.