Postal voting marks start of US Prez election

North Carolina was to begin mailing out more than 6 lakh ballots

The US election is officially open: North Carolina on Friday launched vote-bymail operations for the November 3 contest between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, which is getting uglier by the hour.

With two months until Election Day, Trump is seizing on fears over violent protests in US cities and questioning the integrity of voting by mail, while challenger Biden intensified his criticism of a “deplorable” leader who he said is not fit for office.

Worries about the unabated spread of Coronavirus are expected to prompt a surge in the number of ballots cast by mail, as millions seek to avoid polling stations.

In a country on edge over the health crisis and a national reckoning about race, the next 60 days will test the ability of the world's largest economy to organise its election while

Washington, Sept. 5:

profoundly changed by a pandemic that has killed 1,87,000 Americans.

North Carolina was to begin mailing out more than 6,00,000 ballots, in response to a major spike in demand. Other key battleground states such as Wisconsin — which both candidates visited in recent days —will follow in the coming weeks. How Americans vote has become another flashpoint in an increasingly divisive political landscape.

A recent poll by USA Today and Suffolk University showed that 56 percent of Republican voters surveyed said they would go in person to vote, while only 26 percent of Democrats plan to do the same.

One out of every four Biden voters said that if the Democratic former vice president loses on November 3, they would not be ready to accept a Trump victory as “fairly won.” About one in five Trump voters said a similar thing. As he seeks a second four-year term, Trump has for months sowed doubt among his base about the legitimacy of an election with a significant number of mailin votes.

Trump — who himself votes by mail in his adopted home state of Florida — has repeatedly, and without evidence, said mail-in voting could lead to widespread fraud.

He even has suggested to his supporters that they try to vote twice to test the system — earning him scorn on social media and from Democrats.

The tense campaign battle heated on Thursday when The Atlantic magazine reported — citing four anonymous sources who said they had firsthand knowledge of the discussions —that Trump had referred to US Marines buried in a World War I cemetery in France as “losers” and “suckers” for getting killed in action. —