It's happening the way it's supposed to happen. Voters are voting -- smashing records, adjusting behaviors and recalibrating expectations -- in ways that show the nation is many things, but definitely not apathetic.

It's also happening in ways that will stress the systems built to account for it all. More early votes, oddly, will mean reporting out results will take longer in several critical states -- to say nothing of the continuing challenges of participating in and administering an election in the midst of a pandemic.

Amid a flurry of COVID-era campaigning in battleground states, this week brought new high-water marks that suggest turnout records will fall this year.

Nearly as many Texans have voted as in all of 2016, with Georgia, North Carolina, Florida and Arizona are among the states already three-quarters of the way there, according to the United States Elections Project at the University of Florida.

But this week also brought continued uncertainties about the process of voting. The Supreme Court now has nine justices again, and voters in states, including Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and North Carolina have a right to be confused about what the law is when it comes to how to vote -- and even what those laws might be on Election Day and beyond.

Layered on top of all of that are the efforts by President Trump to sow doubts about the integrity of the election.

From the local level on up, election officials say they're confident that there will be an accurate -- and, hopefully, promptly tallied -- vote count. But the surge of voting, while good for democracy, figures to make everything more difficult during this most difficult of times for the country.

-ABC News’ Political Director Rick Klein

Returning to the state for the first time since campaigning in the Iowa caucuses, Biden made his argument against Trump’s handling of COVID-19 directly to Iowan voters at a drive-in rally this afternoon, emphasizing the jobs lost in Iowa because of, he said, Trump’s unwillingness to deal with the pandemic.

“Eighty-two thousand Iowa jobs lost in the pandemic, and still, they've not come back. Seventy-thousand jobs lost in Iowa since Donald Trump became president. Here at the fairgrounds, the Iowa State Fair cancelled for the first time since World War Two. Donald Trump has given up," Biden said to honking horns of support.

The former vice president repeated his campaign promise that he wouldn’t raise taxes on those making less than $400,000 a year, but said big corporations -- and the president -- will pay their “fair share” in a Biden administration.

"Why should a firefighter, an educator, a nurse, a cop pay at a higher tax rate -- which you do -- than a major multi-billion dollar corporation? Why should you pay more taxes than Donald Trump, who paid $750?" Biden said, referring to a New York Times report. "Well, you ain't going to be gaming the system anymore in a Biden administration. They're going to start paying.”

The race in Iowa is neck and neck with Trump leading by one point according to a Quinnipiac poll published Thursday -- remarkable given that Trump won the state back in 2016 by 10 points. 

While the state only has 6 electoral college votes, it holds a key demographic of Trump's base: farmers. And Biden catered his argument in Des Moines to that key base, arguing he can end trade abuses by China harming their industry, not Trump.

“He [Trump] says, because of, quote, his bailouts, ‘our farmers do better now than when they actually had a farm,’” Biden said. “Look, I'll do what he's been unable to do. I'll mobilize a true international effort to stop China's abuses, so we can strengthen manufacturing and farming in Iowa and across the country.”

In 2016, Trump’s strength in rural counties propelled his victory in Iowa, which saw the largest swing away from Democrats among the six states that flipped from former President Barack Obama to Trump. But Biden also made clear his close relationship to Obama, reminding Iowans they led them to the White House in 2008 and 2012.

"You, too, have a sacred duty -- a duty to vote. It matters," Biden said. "Iowa matters."

-ABC News’ Lauren Lantry contributed to this report.