A week before the election, Joe Biden is betting on Georgia as Donald Trump embarks on a three-state campaign

Just a week before the November 3 election, President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Joe Biden will visit the country on Tuesday on an intense campaign day that will also include former President Barack Obama.

Still behind Biden in national opinion polls, Trump will hold rallies in three key states for his re-election aspirations: Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nebraska. while Biden viaja in Georgia Y Obama campaigns on behalf of its former vice president in Florida, a crucial state.

The U.S. presidential campaign this year was unlike any other due to the raging coronavirus pandemic, which has already killed more than 225,000 Americans and resulted in a historic early vote. As of Monday evening, over 64 million votes have been cast, a figure that is almost half of the total votes in 2016, according to the US election project at the University of Florida.

The sheer volume of votes in the mail could take days or weeks to count, experts say. Voting by mail is nothing new in the US – roughly one in four votes cast this way in 2016 – but the trend is increasing amid the pandemic.

On Monday, the two campaigns focused on Pennsylvania, a state that reflects the country’s polarization and for now gives Democrats a slight edge. It is that region that Trump focuses on: the so-called “blue wall” that he managed to overturn in 2016 (Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin) and which he must maintain in this race.

Trump, who has repeatedly and without evidence that votes sent in the mail are susceptible to fraud, said on Twitter on Monday: “You must have the final total by November 3.” Twitter flagged the tweet with a disclaimer describing the content of the message as “controversial” and potentially misleading.

Biden’s foray into Georgia, long a republican stronghold, is a sign of the optimism of the Democratic campaign heading into its final week. Polls show that the race is very close and Biden’s victory in Georgia would likely be a major blow to Trump’s chances. The state has not supported a Democrat in the presidential election since 1992.

Biden told reporters Monday that he believes he has a “fighting chance” to take over Georgia. The Democrat will hold an afternoon event in Warm Springs – where former President Franklin Roosevelt had a summer residence – before concluding the day with an evening rally in the state capital, Atlanta. Biden’s heavily funded campaign has been investing in advertising for weeks in the state.

In a similar sign of optimism, Vice President Kamala Harris will pass through Arizona and Texas, where Republicans have not suffered state-level losses since 1994.

Obama, who emerged as a standout representative for Biden in the final stretch, will campaign in Orlando after leading a rally in Miami over the weekend. Biden was Obama’s vice president for eight years.

(With information from Reuters)

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