Election 2020 updates: Trump delivers shorter-than-usual speech in chilly Pennsylvania
Trump holds a rally in Pennsylvania while Biden is prepping for their debate.
With 14 days to go until Election Day, and President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden racing toward Nov. 3, voters are turning out in record numbers to cast their ballots early.
Roughly 35 million Americans have already voted in the 2020 election, reflecting an extraordinary level of participation and interest despite unprecedented barriers brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.
In the final weeks of campaigning, the president remains on defense as his approval rating drags. He's hosting rallies this week mostly in states he won in 2016 including Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia.
Biden, maintaining a nationwide lead in polls -- his largest lead of the election, according to FiveThirtyEight's average -- has no public events on his schedule this week so far ahead of Thursday's final presidential debate with Trump. Staying off the trail ahead of debates is a pattern for the former vice president.
Polls indicate a huge pre-Election-Day edge for Biden and a sizable Trump advantage among those who plan to vote on Nov. 3 itself. Trump has sowed doubt in the mail-in ballot process -- and imminent election results -- for months.
The rhetoric between candidates is expected to heat up ahead of their second and final showdown in Nashville.
All 50 states plus Washington, D.C., currently have some form of early voting underway. Check out FiveThirtyEight’s guide to voting during the COVID-19 pandemic here.
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More than 3 million voters requested ballots in Michigan, more than half have been returned
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is estimating record turnout in this year's election, as more than 3 million Michigan voters have requested their ballots and over half of those voters have already returned them -- surpassing expectations with still two weeks until Nov. 3.
Looking ahead to the next two weeks, Benson told reporters Tuesday morning she is cautioning voters against using the mail due to potential postal delays, instead encouraging them to rely on drop boxes and hand delivering ballots to clerks offices to ensure their ballots meet the Election Day deadline.
There is currently a legal dispute in Michigan over the deadline for accepting mail ballots, with the Michigan Court of Appeals late last week blocking a lower court's order that extended the deadline for absentee ballots to arrive by two weeks.
-ABC News' Kendall Karson
FLOTUS no longer traveling with POTUS to Pennsylvania, spokeswoman cites lingering cough
First lady Melania Trump is no longer traveling with the president to Pennsylvania Tuesday, with her office citing a "lingering cough."
"Mrs. Trump continues to feel better every day following her recovery from COVID-19, but with a lingering cough, and out of an abundance of caution, she will not be traveling today," the first lady's chief of staff and spokesperson Stephanie Grisham said in a statement.
Tuesday's campaign visit to Pennsylvania was supposed to have been the first lady's first public appearance after contracting COVID-19.
Tuesday's event would have been the first lady's first rally appearance in over a year. She last joined Trump on stage at his reelection kickoff in Orlando in June 2019.
-ABC News' Jordyn Phelps and Will Steakin
USPS concerned about safety of personnel
The United States Postal Inspection Service, the law-enforcement arm of the Postal Service, this month issued a bulletin to local, state and federal law-enforcement agencies around the country warning them to be mindful of threats to postal workers and the mail because of the controversy surrounding mail-in ballots for the Nov. 3 election.
“The intense media focus and public awareness surrounding these mail-in ballots could potentially make USPS employees and vehicle a tempting target for criminal activities,” the one-page Oct. 7 bulletin said. It goes on to list a series of possible threats including assaults of USPS personnel and general mail theft, among other concerns.
The bulletin comes as the president continues to sow doubt in the integrity of the mail-in ballot process.
-ABC News' Josh Margolin
Harris' connection to Caribbean voters could make difference in Florida
When Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., took part in an interview on a South Florida radio show called "Caribbean Riddims," she sprinkled the Jamaican phrase "ya mon" throughout the interview with a heavy hand.
The Democratic vice presidential nominee is the daughter of Jamaican and Indian immigrants and playing up her Jamaican heritage is a huge part of the Biden-Harris campaign's outreach to Afro-Caribbean voters in the Sunshine State.
The voting bloc is significant in Florida, especially in South Florida and along the critical I-4 corridor, a bellwether in this battleground state. According to the Migration Policy Institute, 41% of the nation's 4.4 million Caribbean immigrants live in Florida, and Miami-Dade County has the highest number of Caribbean immigrants in the U.S. with 862,000 Caribbean immigrants calling it home. If the campaign's outreach to this community is successful, it could help turn the state into an electoral victory for Biden and Harris.
-ABC News’ Averi Harper
Trump to campaign in Pennsylvania without Melania
Struggling in the polls in battleground Pennsylvania and targeting the votes of suburban women, Trump had hoped for an assist from his wife Melania Trump at a rally this evening, but a "lingering cough" from her recent bout with the coronavirus scuttled the plan, according to the first lady's spokeswoman.
Instead, the president will make the trip to the northeastern Pennsylvania city of Erie without her, part of an attempt to defend his narrow win in Pennsylvania in 2016. Fewer than 2,000 votes separated him from his Democratic opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Four years earlier, then-President Barack Obama won the state by nearly 17%.
Recent polls have shown former Biden with a clear lead in Pennsylvania. In a Quinnipiac poll released Oct. 7, the Democratic nominee led by 13% among likely voters. A poll from Monmouth University published the day prior showed a similar lead, with Biden up 12% among registered voters. FiveThirtyEight's Pennsylvania polling average shows Biden leading by 6.4%.
-ABC News’ Jordyn Phelps and Ben Gittleson