Election 2020 updates: Biden outlines plan for tackling COVID-19
"We're not learning to live with it, we're learning to die with it," he says.
With 11 days to go until Election Day and President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden racing toward Nov. 3, voters have turned out in record numbers to cast their ballots early.
More than 50 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.
The candidates faced off in the final presidential debate of the 2020 election cycle from Belmont University in Nashville Thursday evening -- their last chance to pitch themselves to tens of millions of voters in primetime before Nov. 3.
In the final weeks of campaigning, the president has remained on defense as polls show him trailing nationally and in several battleground states key to his reelection hopes. He has two rallies in Florida today.
Biden, maintaining a lead in national polls -- his largest of the election, according to FiveThirtyEight's average -- stayed off the trail ahead of the debate, a pattern for the former vice president. On Friday, he's scheduled to deliver remarks in Wilmington, Delaware, on COVID-19 and the economy.
Polls indicate a huge pre-Election-Day edge for Biden and a sizable Trump advantage among those who plan to vote on Nov. 3. Trump has sowed doubt in the mail-in ballot process -- and imminent election results -- for months.
All 50 states plus Washington, D.C., have some form of early voting underway. Check out FiveThirtyEight’s guide to voting during the COVID-19 pandemic here.
Latest headlines:
- Trump rallies at The Villages in Florida amid slipping support among seniors
- Harris appeals to HBCU grads, Black men at back-to-back events in Atlanta
- Biden slams Trump's handling of COVID-19, outlines his own plan
- Trump takes swipe at Biden in announcing peace deal, predicts a 'great red wave'
- Early voting by the numbers
Early voting by the numbers
With early voting having kicked off in all 50 states plus Washington, D.C., at least 52 million votes have already been cast in the 2020 general election -- breaking records across the country.
In 2016, a total of 47 million early votes were cast, meaning the country has already surpassed its 2016 early voting data by roughly 5 million votes.
As of Friday at 1 p.m. an unprecedented 52,480,306 voters had already voted and at least 85,546,463 ballots had been requested in early voting states, according to the United States Elections Project, spearheaded by University of Florida's political expert Michael McDonald.
TargetSmart, a Democratic firm that collects political data including early voting statistics, reports that 10 million voters who have already voted in the 2020 election did not participate in the 2016 election. Many of these early votes are coming from young people as well as first-time voters. Individuals under 30 years old have cast 9.1% of early votes.
During a press conference Thursday, TargetSmart predicted there will still be an additional 40 million early votes cast as well as between 60-70 million votes cast on Election Day. The prediction is for at least 150 million ballots cast in total. In comparison, in the 2016 election, there were 138 million total votes.
-ABC News' Kelsey Walsh
Harris defends Biden’s fossil fuel comment made during debate
Upon landing in Atlanta, Sen. Kamala Harris was asked to give her response to workers in the energy sector who might be worried about Biden's remark at the debate that his administration would transition out of the oil industry over time and end federal subsidies for fossil fuels.
"Let’s be really clear about this. Joe Biden is not going to ban fracking," Harris said. "He is going to deal with oil subsidies but that’s -- you know the president likes to put everything out of context, but let’s be clear what Joe was talking about was banning subsidies but he will not ban fracking in America."
Harris' defense of her running mate comes as Trump and his campaign have seized on the comment, claiming Biden has said in the past he would ban all fracking. The former vice president insists he said he would ban fracking on federal lands, not altogether.
It also comes as Trump and Biden court the battleground state of Pennsylvania, key to a pathway to the White House.
The comments are significant as Pennsylvania is the second-largest producer of natural gas in the U.S. More natural gas was fracked from Pennsylvania wells in 2019 than in any prior year, according to the state Department of Environmental Protection.
-ABC News' Averi Harper
Dem candidates on the trail
Here’s where the candidates on the Democratic ticket are campaigning today:
Former Vice President Joe Biden:
Biden is slated to deliver a speech on COVID-19 and the economy at 2:30 p.m. from Wilmington, Delaware, where he's been hunkered down for the majority of the week to prepare for the debate.
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.:
The California senator has landed in Atlanta and is expected to make multiple stops to encourage Georgians to vote early. In the evening, at 5:10 p.m., Harris is scheduled to participate in drive-in rally.
GOP candidates on the trail
Here’s where the candidates on the Republican ticket are campaigning today:
President Donald Trump:
Trump is slated to travel to Florida this afternoon for a campaign rally at The Villages, a massive Republican retirement community, at 4:30 p.m. Later on, he’s scheduled to host a second campaign rally in Pensacola at 8 p.m. as he aims to secure the battleground state he narrowly won in 2016.
The president is also expected to early vote in West Palm Beach on Saturday, according to the White House.
Vice President Mike Pence:
The vice president is scheduled to campaign in the battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, kicking off the day at an afternoon rally in Swanton, Ohio, at 1p.m. before heading to West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, for a 4:30 p.m. rally.