As Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump remain in a close race according to public polls, both campaigns expressed confidence Thursday.
With the election just five days away, the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates are making their final pitches to voters, focusing on swing states – with neither showing a measurable advantage in the polls.
A senior Harris campaign official said in a call with reporters Thursday that they “feel very good about what we’re seeing.” And the Trump campaign sent reporters a memo showing that Trump is ahead in five of seven swing states, based on Real Clear Politics polling averages.
The Trump memo, written by pollster Tony Fabrizio, showed that Trump had narrow leads in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Nevada and larger advantages in Arizona and Georgia.
According to this, more than 63.6 million early votes were documented by Thursday evening The University of Florida Election Lab’s Early Voting Tracker. In states that have party registration data, Democrats remained ahead, with more than 12 million voters registered with that party, compared to more than 11.2 million Republicans and more than 7.8 million voters registered with another party or no party.
Senior Harris campaign officials also suggested that Trump was “clearly concerned” about losing the race, noting that he was “pushing unfounded claims of voter fraud and irregularities.”
They referred to a Truth Social post from the former president on Wednesday, in which Trump claimed that “Pennsylvania is cheating and getting caught on a scale that has never happened before.”
“REPORT FRAUD TO THE AUTHORITIES. Law enforcement must act NOW!” Trump wrote.
The former president’s election campaign won a lawsuit Wednesday in the Keystone State over claims that voters in Bucks County were turned away while waiting in line to receive mail-in ballots. A judge extended the deadline for absentee voting in Bucks County to close of business Friday. The statewide deadline was set for Tuesday at 5 p.m
“Needless to say, Pennsylvania is not cheating,” a senior Harris campaign official said on the call, adding that “a handful of people were reportedly turned away from the early voting line in Bucks County” and “the county responded by taking this to court.” agreed to additional days, not just hours, of early voting.”
A senior Harris campaign official said the system was working “as it should,” pointing to three counties in the Keystone State that identified suspicious registrations and refused to process them while also coordinating with law enforcement.
“This is all fraud only in the eyes of someone who wants to claim they were defrauded, and it is another example of how Donald Trump is trying to sow doubt about our elections and institutions when he is afraid he won’t win to be able to,” the official said.
Elon Musk’s Voter Sweepstakes
Meanwhile, a judge in Pennsylvania filed a lawsuit against him on Thursday Billionaire Elon Musk and his America PAC on hold while the fate of a federal court hearing the case remains uncertain.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner sued Musk and his super PAC earlier this week over allegations that the Trump ally’s $1 million-a-day election draw was an illegal lottery.
Musk’s lawyers argued Wednesday that state court was not the proper venue for the lawsuit and asked that the case be moved to federal court.
Although the world’s richest man was ordered to appear at Thursday’s hearing, he did not show up.
Many voters are feeling fear and frustration about the election campaign
About 7 in 10 Americans are frustrated or worried about the 2024 presidential campaign, while just over a third are excited, according to a study AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research Survey released on Thursday.
Nearly 80% of Democrats are worried about the race, compared with nearly two-thirds of Republicans and about half of independents, according to the poll.
Americans’ feelings about the 2024 presidential campaign are similar to those in 2020, when, according to the same pollsters, three in 10 respondents were excited, nearly seven in 10 were frustrated and nearly two-thirds said they were worried.
Coming soon from the Harris and Trump campaigns
Harris will hold a campaign rally in the Appleton area of Wisconsin on Friday and hold a rally and concert in Milwaukee later in the day.
The party’s vice president, Democratic Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, will campaign in Nevada and Arizona this weekend.
Republican Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, Trump’s running mate, will hold rallies in Portage, Michigan, and Selma, North Carolina, on Friday.
Trump will hold rallies in Warren, Michigan, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Friday.
The Harris campaign announced Thursday that it will host its election night event at Howard University in Washington, D.C. — the vice president’s alma mater.
