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Election 2020: Both Trump and Biden campaign in battleground Pennsylvania

More than 60 million have voted already in the 2020 election.

Last Updated: October 26, 2020, 1:26 PM EDT

With eight days until Election Day, and President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden racing toward Nov. 3, early voters are turning out in record numbers.

The president has an aggressive campaign schedule as polls show him trailing nationally and in battleground states key to his reelection hopes, including Pennsylvania where he held three events Monday.

Biden, meanwhile, spoke briefly at a voter activation center in Pennsylvania Monday.

Vice President Mike Pence, who heads the coronavirus task force, held a Minnesota rally despite being exposed to COVID-19.

Top headlines:

Here is how the day is developing. All times Eastern.
Oct 26, 2020, 1:26 PM EDT

Pence not expected to preside over Barrett confirmation vote

Vice President Mike Pence is not expected to preside over Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Senate vote this evening unless his vote is needed, multiple sources tell ABC News. 

Barrett has the GOP votes to be confirmed so it’s unlikely that Pence’s tie-breaking vote will be needed.

Vice President Mike Pence waves to supporters, Oct. 24, 2020 in Tallahassee, Fla.
Steve Cannon/AP

According to his schedule, Pence will be back in town from a Minnesota campaign stop during the time of the vote, which is expected at 7 p.m.

Shortly after White House communications director Alyssa Farrah said that Pence would be presiding over the Senate vote, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows told reporters during a gaggle that Pence showing up was "in flux." Over the weekend, Pence "as vice president, I am president of the Senate. And I'm going to be in that chair cause I would not miss that vote for the world!"

It’s unclear if Pence plans to attend a likely White House South Lawn this evening to celebrate Barrett's confirmation and swearing-in.

The change comes as five people in Pence’s orbit have tested positive for the coronavirus, though Pence was cleared by doctors to continue to travel as “essential personnel,” according to his office. 
 
-ABC News’ Katherine Faulders and John Santucci

Oct 26, 2020, 10:30 AM EDT

Trump to battleground Pennsylvania, Pence to Minnesota

Trump and Pence are ramping up their already aggressive campaign schedules -- traveling through nearly a dozen battleground states over the next week -- in a final effort to boost their standing in the polls ahead of Nov. 3, doing so as coronavirus cases surge across the country, during an election that has largely become a referendum on the Trump administration's handling of it. 

President Donald Trump walks out of White House on Oct. 26, 2020 in Washington, D.C.
Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Trump departed the White House this morning for Allentown, Pennsylvania, where his campaign says he'll deliver “victory remarks” on the American worker before two back-to-back afternoon rallies in the Keystone State -- key to his pathway to keeping the White House. Trump narrowly won Pennsylvania in 2016, and polls show Biden with a big boost from suburban women there. 

A Trump supporter wearing a cap and a face mask arrives to a rally in Lancaster, Pa., Oct. 26, 2020.
Hannah Mckay/Reuters

Still, some Trump supporters in Pennsylvania were seen waiting in the rain for hours ahead of the president's arrival.

Pence, too, is maintaining his aggressive campaign schedule despite an outbreak of coronavirus among his aides with five reporting testing positive over the weekend including his chief of staff Marc Short. Due to the close nature of Pence’s working relationship with Short, the Centers for Disease Control guidelines require him to quarantine to reduce the risk of asymptomatic spread -- despite testing negative again Monday morning, according to his office. 

Pence’s press secretary Dan O’Malley said over the weekend that the vice president would keep to his commitments “in accordance with the CDC guidelines for essential personnel.”

Pence, head of the coronavirus task force, is scheduled to travel to Hibbing, Minnesota, Monday for an afternoon rally.

The White House has not confirmed whether the vice president will preside over the Supreme Court confirmation vote of Judge Amy Coney Barrett in the Senate this evening in the wake of the outbreak, but Pence indicated at a Florida rally on Saturday that he would be in attendance.

Oct 26, 2020, 9:18 AM EDT

Biden plays on expanded map as Trump tends to base

It's either brilliant or delusional -- a sign of changing realities or political hubris. There's no way to know which for at least another eight days.

Biden's campaign is seeing an expanding map and looking to play all over it during the final stretch of the race.

Biden will spend Tuesday in Georgia, with Sen. Kamala Harris expected in Texas this week and former President Barack Obama being deployed again to Florida. Democrats are playing in a battleground map of 17 states -- when all they needs to do is flip the right three.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden attends a Drive-In rally at Dallas High School, in Dallas, Pennsylvania, Oct. 24, 2020.
Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

Those key three are where Trump is spending his Monday and Tuesday, with a crush of rallies that both defy social-distance guidelines and remain the kind of events that only he could pull together.

Trump's focus is falling on the trio Democrats have stressed over for four years running: Pennsylvania, where he will have three rallies Monday, then Wisconsin and Michigan Tuesday, with the president campaigning primarily in GOP strongholds inside those states.

One school of thought will always second-guess any time spent by either candidate anywhere else. But Biden is flush with both cash and eager surrogates, and is watching early turnout numbers blow past expectations while new COVID-19 spikes keep the race focused on where he wants it.

President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Manchester-Boston Regional Airport in Londonderry, New Hampshire, Oct. 25, 2020.
Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

Trump still has to worry about a crumbling coalition of states the GOP considered safe. He never wanted to have to campaign in Ohio or Florida at this stage of the race, to say nothing of Nebraska -- where he will squeeze in a trip Tuesday -- or South Carolina, where Vice President Mike Pence will be that same day.

Polling and pandemic realities confirm something smart political minds have long said: 2020 is not 2016. But the thought that pursuing close to 400 electoral votes could make the path to 270 even a little harder will haunt some Democrats until the end of this long race

-ABC News’ Political Director Rick Klein

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