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More than 100 million votes were cast before Election Day in US: Watchdog

Tuesday, 03 November 2020 7:27 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 03 November 2020 7:28 PM ]

A voter fills out their ballot at Public School on November 3, 2020 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by AFP)

More than 100 million Americans have cast their vote in the 2020 US presidential election before Election Day despite the risks posed by the ongoing deadly pandemic.

According to the US Elections Project watchdog 100.2 million Americans voted nationwide by depositing their ballot in drop boxes or casting their vote at polling stations ahead of the vote on Tuesday.

The early ballots represent more than 72 percent of the 136.5 million ballots cast in the 2016 presidential election, according to the tally by the watchdog based at the University of Florida.

Nationwide pre-Election Day voting reached the record figure amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and 231,000 COVID-19-related deaths in the US.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump's election campaign events increased the cases of COVID-19 by more than 250 per 100,000 residents of the counties where these the rallies were held.

Study links Trump rallies with 30,000 infections and 700 deaths from coronavirus

Stanford University scientists have analyzed 18 Trump rallies and found that after these events, confirmed cases of COVID-19 increased by more than 250 per 100,000 residents.

Trump's rallies were marked by not observing the recommended safety distance, nor using face masks prescribed by a consensus of medical experts and health authorities across the globe. Many experts blame the US president for the high number of COVID-19-related deaths in the US.

More than 9 million people have been infected with the novel coronavirus in the US, so far.

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