COVID-19 surge endangers Trump’s voter turnout plan
WASHINGTON
A surge in coronavirus cases in counties critical to President Donald Trump’s victory may disrupt his plans to drive up in-person voting on Nov. 3, potentially reducing Republican turnout in areas the president can least afford it.
In Kenosha, a Wisconsin county that voted for Barack Obama in 2012 and Trump in 2016, the positivity rate for COVID-19 test results has reached 27%. In relatively populous Westmoreland County in Western Pennsylvania where Trump won by more than 50,000 votes four years ago, the positivity rate for coronavirus cases has nearly tripled in two weeks, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
And Calhoun County, Michigan, which gave
Trump a double-digit margin of victory in 2016 after narrowly voting for Obama in 2012, has recently seen the fastest spread of the coronavirus of any county in the state’s lower peninsula.
Epidemiologists and political experts alike believe numbers like these point to an increasingly dire Election Day picture, in which spiking cases and diminishing hospital capacity in counties where Trump must run up the score could scare voters away from the polls.
“I think we can assume that around the time of the election, unfortunately, we’re going to see increased rates of death in particular, given the acceleration we’re seeing in many parts of the country,” said Dr. Laura Jarmila Rasmussen-Torvik, chief of epidemiology in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
“Of the areas that are being pretty hard hit right now, there are several Midwestern areas, for example, where you’re seeing the health systems about to get overwhelmed — and maybe we will see changes in behavior in response to that,” Rasmussen-Torvik said. “In many places, we are very much headed in the wrong direction.”
The surge in coronavirus cases in such critical counties comes as more unwelcome news for Trump’s team, which already enters the final stretch of the campaign against Democratic opponent, former Vice President Joe Biden, icant loss as the mission’s aim is to bring back at least 60 grams of asteroid dirt and rocks.
“You’ve got to remember the entire system is in microgravity,” Lauretta said. running out of money and down in battleground and nationwide polls.
A record number of Americans are voting by mail, and with polls indicating that Democrats are far more likely to take advantage of that option, Republicans are warning that health scares could upend their last, best chance to catch up in the vote count.
Relying on in-person voting was always a risky strategy from the president, who decided early on to cast doubt on the legitimacy of mail-in voting during a deadly pandemic.
Throughout the cam
The United States is in the midst of one of the most severe surges of the coronavirus to date, with more new cases reported across the country Friday than on any other day since the pandemic began.
Since the start of October, the rise in cases has been steady and inexorable. By Friday evening, more than 82,000 cases had been reported across the country, breaking a single-day record set July 16 by more than 6,000. paign, Trump has repeatedly warned that universal mail-in voting could lead to widespread voter fraud, and Republican lawyers have fought to restrict ballot receipt deadlines, the use of ballot drop boxes, and other measures that could expand the vote ahead of Election Day.
There is no evidence to back up Trump’s claims of voter fraud, but they have had the effect of diminishing confidence among Republicans that voting by mail is a secure way to cast their ballots.
Democrats, meanwhile, have already been voting early in droves, particularly through the mail. That’s sparked concern among some Republicans who say they’ll need to match massive Democratic turnout engineered over the course of weeks in just a single day.
If even a small share of their voters stay home because of concerns about the coronavirus, it could have catastrophic effects up and down the ballot for the GOP.
By that measure, Friday was the worst day of the pandemic, and health experts warned of a further surge as cold weather arrivess. The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 has already risen 40% in the past month. Deaths have remained relatively flat but are often a lagging indicator.
The latest outbreaks are scattered in states like Illinois and Rhode Island, experiencing a second upswing, and in places like Montana and South Dakota, enduring a first flood of cases.