Trump, Biden step up campaigns amid early voting

President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden were looking to persuade early voters on Sunday in Nevada and North Carolina with the final presidential debate later this week.

Some 27.7 million Americans already have cast ballots either by mail or in person ahead of the Nov 3 election, according to the US Elections Project at the University of Florida.

The novel coronavirus pandemic so far has not had an effect on voter interest, with some states reporting record numbers of voter registrations, although the fierce political divide in the US probably is a factor, too.

Georgia reported a high of nearly 7.6 million registered voters, 734,000 of whom registered online, according to politico.com. In Arizona, a high of nearly 4 million people had registered to vote as of August. In Florida, more than 14.4 million voters have registered, exceeding the 2016 total by nearly 1 million, the website reported.

In North Carolina, where 1.4 million, or 20 percent, of the state's registered voters had already voted as of Sunday morning, Biden, 77, urged residents to cast ballots as soon as possible. Trump won the state in 2016.

"We got to keep the incredible momentum going; we can't let up," he said at a "drive-in rally" in Durham. "Don't wait — go vote today."

Biden also criticized Trump for saying over the weekend that the United States had "turned the corner" in the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that the rate of new cases across the country has risen to the highest level in months.

Trump, 74, a Republican, spent Sunday in Nevada, a state he hopes to wrest away from Democrats after narrowly losing it to Hillary Clinton in 2016. Early in-person voting in the state began on Saturday.

The president began his day by attending a service at the International Church of Las Vegas. One of the church's pastors, Denise Goulet, said that God had told her that Trump would win the 2020 election. Trump put a handful of $20 bills into an offering bucket and bowed his head during a prayer.

Trump will campaign every day leading up to Thursday's debate in Nashville, Tennessee, including stops in Arizona and North Carolina, campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said.

Biden campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon said over the weekend that the national polling figures showing Biden ahead are misleading because must-win states are close.

"We cannot become complacent because the very searing truth is that Donald Trump can still win this race, and every indication we have shown that this thing is going to come down to the wire," she wrote in a memo to donors.

Trump campaigned on Saturday in Michigan and Wisconsin, two battleground states he narrowly won in the 2016 election.

In Muskegeon, Michigan, he criticized Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, for imposing restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Whitmer was the target of a kidnapping plot uncovered by the FBI.

"Hopefully you'll be sending her packing pretty soon," Trump said, prompting the crowd to yell back "Lock her up!" several times.

Whitmer said Sunday on Meet the Presson NBC that the president's rhetoric was "incredibly disturbing" and "dangerous" for her and her family.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday that differences remain with the Trump administration on a wide-ranging coronavirus relief package, but she was optimistic legislation could be agreed to before Election Day.

The California Democrat said she wanted a bill passed before the election but acknowledged an agreement would have to come within 48 hours.

"I'm optimistic because, again, we've been back and forth on all of this," Pelosi said on ABC'sThis Week.

The White House proposed a $1.8 trillion stimulus last week. Pelosi, who wants a $2.2 trillion aid and stimulus package, said the offer fell short in a range of areas including tax credits for poor people, aid to state and local governments, worker protections and rent assistance.

The Republicans who control the Senate, however, are reluctant to pass another massive relief bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said the Senate would vote on Wednesday on a pared-down $500 billion proposal to target specific areas of need.

Democrats have rejected so-called skinny bills with pared-down funding.

Twitter on Sunday removed what it called a "misleading" tweet downplaying the usefulness of masks posted by a top coronavirus adviser to Trump.

Dr Scott Atlas' post on Twitter on Saturday said: "Masks work? NO."

Twitter Inc removed the tweet Sunday, saying it violated its "misleading information" policy on COVID-19, which targets statements that have been confirmed to be false or misleading by subject-matter experts.

Twitter and Facebook have been thrust into campaign controversy after blocking linking to a New York Post story last week that published emails and pictures from a laptop computer purportedly abandoned by Biden's son Hunter at a pawn shop in Wilmington, Delaware.

"The United States shows more CASES than other countries, which the Lamestream Fake News Media pounces on daily, because it TESTS at such a high (and costly) level," he wrote on Twitter.

Hospitalizations were rising in 42 states, and there is no intervention short of a vaccine that can thwart the spread, said Dr Scott Gottlieb, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar urged Americans to continue social distancing, wearing masks and washing hands. "Hang in there with us," he said onMeet the Press. "We are so close."

Reuters contributed to this story.