With two days to go, Trump casts doubt on integrity of prolonged vote count
UPDATED 11.50AM | President Donald Trump cast doubt on the integrity of the US election again on Sunday, saying a vote count that stretched past Election Day would be a "terrible thing" and suggesting his lawyers might get involved.
With two days to go until Tuesday's election and trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden in opinion polls, Trump raced through battleground states in a late hunt for support, while Biden implored attendees at two rallies in the pivotal state of Pennsylvania to get out and vote.
UPDATED 11.50AM | President Donald Trump cast doubt on the integrity of the US election again on Sunday, saying a vote count that stretched past Election Day would be a "terrible thing" and suggesting his lawyers might get involved.
With two days to go until Tuesday's election and trailing Democratic rival Joe Biden in opinion polls, Trump raced through battleground states in a late hunt for support, while Biden implored attendees at two rallies in the pivotal state of Pennsylvania to get out and vote.
Americans have rushed to vote early, already casting nearly 60 million mail-in ballots that could take days or weeks to be counted in some states - meaning a winner might not be declared in the hours after polls close on Tuesday night.
"I don’t think it’s fair that we have to wait for a long period of time after the election," Trump told reporters before a rally in North Carolina. Some states, including Pennsylvania, do not start processing mail-in votes until Election Day, slowing the process.
Trump has said repeatedly without evidence that mail-in votes are prone to fraud, although election experts say that is rare in US elections. Mail voting is a long-standing feature of American elections, and about one in four ballots was cast that way in 2016.
Democrats have pushed mail-in voting as a safe way to cast a ballot during the coronavirus pandemic, while Trump and Republicans are counting on a big Election Day in-person turnout.
"We’re going in the night of - as soon as the election is over - we’re going in with our lawyers," Trump told reporters without offering further explanation.
Trump denied an Axios report that he has told confidants he will declare victory on Tuesday night if it looks like he is ahead, even if the Electoral College outcome is unclear. But he said it was a "terrible thing" that ballots would be counted after Election Day.
Speaking to voters in Michigan, Trump predicted he would repeat his 2016 victory in Michigan and touted his efforts to create auto jobs, a key issue for the auto manufacturing state.
"We brought back your car industry. Your car industry was finished. You would have had nothing left," Trump said.
Motor vehicle manufacturing employment in Michigan has fallen by about 5,000 jobs since Trump took office in early 2017, and there are about 13,000 fewer jobs making vehicle parts.
Trump addressed another spirited rally in windy Dubuque, where he made his pitch to Iowa farmers in the important corn-growing state and predicted he would win there as he did four years ago.
Tussles in Texas
Between campaign stops in Philadelphia, Biden criticised Trump for encouraging his supporters after they harassed a Biden campaign bus in Texas. A caravan of vehicles bearing Trump campaign flags surrounded the bus carrying campaign staff on a highway on Friday, forcing the campaign to cancel two events.
Trump on Saturday retweeted a video of the incident and wrote: "I LOVE TEXAS!"
"We've never had anything like this. At least we've never had a president who thinks it's a good thing," Biden told reporters.
The FBI said on Sunday it had opened an inquiry into the Texas incident.
Commenting on an Axios report that Trump has told confidants he will declare victory on Tuesday night if it looks like he is ahead even if the Electoral College outcome is unclear, Biden said: "The president’s not going to steal this election."
Trump told reporters the report was false but said it was a "terrible thing" that ballots would be counted after Tuesday's election.
Biden is ahead 51 percent to 43 percent nationally in the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll, taken from Oct 27 to 29. A coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 230,000 Americans and battered the economy has weighed on Trump's campaign.
But the race remains a toss-up in Florida, North Carolina and Arizona, Reuters/Ipsos polls showed, as Trump trails by seven percentage points in Pennsylvania and 10 points in Michigan and Wisconsin.
In his 2016 victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton, the real estate developer and reality TV personality-turned-politician was propelled into the White House by victories in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, states that for decades had gone into the Democratic column.
Biden is scheduled to appear again on Monday in Pennsylvania and added a stop in Ohio, indicating his campaign views that Midwestern state as winnable.
A record-setting 93.2 million early votes have been cast either in-person or by mail, according to the US Elections Project, representing about 40 percent of eligible voters. The early surge has led Michael McDonald of the University of Florida, who administers the project, to predict a record turnout rate of about 65 percent of eligible voters, the highest rate since 1908.
Trump was due to stage 10 rallies - five a day - on Sunday and Monday, the campaign's busiest stretch, with Monday appearances planned in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and back in Michigan.
Hitting on familiar themes, Trump portrayed himself as running against "a corrupt politician" and "a dummy and a half" in Biden as well as a "left-wing mob" and Democratic "maniacs".
The contest has proven unexpectedly close in Texas, typically a reliable Republican state.
In Democratic-leaning Houston, a Republican state legislator and a conservative activist are seeking a court ruling that drive-through voting is illegal and that about 120,000 votes already cast should be thrown out. The Texas Supreme Court declined on Sunday to hear their claims. A federal judge is due to hold an emergency hearing on Monday on their request.
- Reuters
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