Campaigning continues as early voting starts. Poll shows Trump with big Florida lead.
The 14-day run of in-person voting ahead of the Nov. 5 election takes place at 26 different sites across Palm Beach County.
In-person voting has begun, mail-in ballots are arriving but campaigning by surrogate will continue in Florida this week as a poll suggests the only close statewide races are for the U.S. Senate seat and the state constitutional amendments.
The Harris-Walz campaign will have second gentleman Doug Emhoff, husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison among those campaigning in seven blue urban bastions.
Ahead of Monday's early voting kickoff, the Democrats said they knocked on close to 32,000 doors, sent almost 1 million texts and made 366,000 phone calls this past weekend.
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The Trump-Vance campaign remained focused on Pennsylvania where the former president worked a shift at a McDonald's restaurant Sunday. A day earlier, Donald Trump held a rally in Latrobe where he made headlines discussing the genitalia size of late golf legend Arnold Palmer and dropping a profanity to describe Harris' tenure as vice president.
In that rally, Trump touted his steel tariff in his first administration and again vowed to bring manufacturing jobs back to America.
The GOP ticket issued a statement Sunday listing surrogates who would be campaigning for Trump and Vance on a Pennsylvania bus tour.
Poll shows Trump with sizeable lead, closer races for Senate, amendments
A survey of Florida voters issued Monday by the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab showed Trump leading Harris by a wide margin — 10 percentage points — 53% to 43% in the state. The poll showed a much tighter contest for the U.S. Senate with Republican incumbent Rick Scott topping Democratic rival Debbie Mucarsel-Powell by 3 points, 49% to 46%.
“At just three percentage points, Rick Scott’s lead is significantly narrower than Trump’s, similar to what we saw back in July,” Michael Binder, faculty director of the polling lab at UNF, said in a prepared statement. “Much like the rest of the country, Trump is running notably ahead of Senate candidates in the same state.”
The poll also indicated support for the passage of two high-profile constitutional amendments to permit the use of recreational marijuana and to restore reproductive rights in Florida.
Want to vote early for Nov. 5 election? Some tips for casting that ballot
The 14-day run of in-person voting ahead of the Nov. 5 election takes place at 26 different sites across Palm Beach County. You can check the list of locations at www.votepalmbeach.gov/Voters/Early-Voting.
Registered voters can also book an appointment to cast their early-voting ballot by accessing https://telegov.egov.com/VotePalmBeach.
Remember to bring your identification, specifically one or two forms of "valid and current identification that includes your signature and photo."
Early voting sites will use ExpressVote equipment, a touchscreen machine that prints out a paper ballot for you to review. You then enter that in a tabulation machine as you would a bubble-in ballot. You can learn more about this system at www.votepalmbeach.gov/Voters/ExpressVote-Program.
While you wait to vote, you might be able to pet and play with pets up for adoption. The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections office is partnering with Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control, Big Dog Rescue Ranch, Kelly's Fosters and Barky Pines Animal Rescue for "Paws to the Polls." Learn more and see the schedule for appearances by furry friends at www.votepalmbeach.gov/Voters/Paws-to-the-Polls.
Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post, part of the Paste BN Florida Network. You can reach him at afins@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.