Trump, Harris Race to Reach Battleground Voters 3 Days Before Election

The Georgia secretary of state’s office recorded more than 4 million votes cast during the state’s early voting period, which concluded on Nov. 1.

In all, the office logged 4,004,588 ballots cast, including 3,761,968 in-person votes and 242,620 mail-in absentee ballots.

The 2024 presidential election on Nov. 5 likely hinges on the outcome in seven battleground states.

Battlegrounds—also called swing or purple states—are where support for Democratic and Republican candidates has been split in recent presidential elections. Current swing states are Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia.

Most other states consistently break for the same political party and aren’t considered competitive.

PHILADELPHIA—Less than four days before the general election, President Joe Biden, on Nov. 1, delivered remarks at a union house in Philadelphia to tout his administration’s record on pensions.

“When you retire and find out all those years of work and sacrifice are slashed, through no fault of your own … imagine what that does financially and emotionally to your dignity. It’s wrong,” Biden said, referring to union pension cuts.

LAS VEGAS—Triple-tier battleground state Nevada’s two-week early voting period ended Nov. 1 with Republicans turning out in far higher numbers than Democrats while also posting significant gains in registered voters.

Those trends have GOP boosters confident former President Donald Trump could be the first Republican to win the Silver State since 2004. Challenger Sam Brown could unseat Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-Nevada), and at least one Democratic-held Las Vegas-area congressional seat could be flipped in the Nov. 5 election.

The 2024 presidential election features a lineup of third-party candidates running against Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump who may or may not significantly impact the results on Election Day.

Not only were several of the battleground states decided with fewer than 30,000 votes in the 2016 and 2020 elections, but recent polls and election forecasters are predicting a narrow race that may fall within the margin of error for national and swing state surveys. 

While third-party candidate impacts on past elections range from insignificant to monumental, any loss of votes for either Harris or Trump will likely affect the race—particularly since the four alternative candidates are on all or some of the ballots in battleground states.

In a race that could determine which party controls the upper chamber of Congress in 2025, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and former Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (D-Fla.) are going head to head for Florida’s senate seat.

Seeing the seat as a potential pickup opportunity in its path to retain Senate control, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) announced in September that it was launching a “multimillion-dollar” television ad buy targeting Scott.

“We have a great opportunity in both Florida and Texas,” DSCC Chair Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich) said during a CSPAN event on Sept. 26.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 1 rejected Republicans’ request to halt the effects of a state court’s decision allowing Pennsylvania voters to cast provisional ballots after they have improperly submitted mail-in ballots.

He said that staying the lower court’s judgment “would not impose any binding obligation on any of the Pennsylvania officials who are responsible for the conduct of this year’s election.”

WARREN, Mich./MILWAUKEE, Wis.—Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump made a series of dueling campaign stops in the key battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan on Nov. 1.

Biden narrowly took Wisconsin by just over 20,000 votes in 2020; he enjoyed a more comfortable victory in Michigan: 50.6 percent to 47.8 percent.

The 2024 presidential election features a lineup of third-party candidates running against Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump who may or may not significantly impact the results on Election Day.

Not only were several of the battleground states decided with fewer than 30,000 votes in the 2016 and 2020 elections, but recent polls and election forecasters are predicting a narrow race that may fall within the margin of error for national and swing state surveys. 

While third-party candidate impacts on past elections range from insignificant to monumental, any loss of votes for either Harris or Trump will likely affect the race—particularly since the four alternative candidates are on all or some of the ballots in battleground states.

News Analysis

“It’s the economy, stupid!”

This has been the go-to political refrain for both sides since Democrat strategist James Carville uttered it in 1992 when he advised former President Bill Clinton.

The Latino vote is shifting toward former President Donald Trump heading into the Nov. 5 election, according to polls and pollsters—a trend that could flip conventional wisdom about which party better aligns with Hispanic values.

Mark Mitchell, head pollster at Rasmussen Reports, said recent polls show more Hispanic voters favoring Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, over Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris.

“Where we’re at now is—depending on the poll—Trump wins the Hispanic vote nationally,” he told The Epoch Times.

Regardless of who wins the election, the next president likely will have to deal with an economic slowdown next year, several experts told The Epoch Times. The government may try to intervene, but there’s a risk any remedies will cause harm, they said.

On paper, the U.S. economy is chugging along nicely. Unemployment is low, the markets are up, and the gross domestic product (GDP) came in 3 percent above inflation in the second quarter. Third-quarter GDP is expected to climb 2.6 percent above inflation, and median wages increased by nearly 2.5 percent (adjusted for inflation) over the past two years.