Anxiety, pandemic prelude US Election Day as candidates make final push

In downtown Washington, D.C., doors and windows of hotels, office buildings, coffee shops, and restaurants, just blocks away from the White House, have been boarded up.

D.C. Metro Police Chief Peter Newsham revealed on Thursday that there were no "credible threats right now of violence," but said a number of groups had applied for permits to conduct large demonstrations and the entire police department would be working on Election Day.

The elections will come as the COVID-19 pandemic is surging in the United States. The novel coronavirus disease, as of Sunday, has infected more than 9.1 million people and killed nearly 231,000 in the country. Both numbers are highest in the world.

Trying to make sure people can vote safely, precautions have been put in place at polling stations across the country.

"We'll be wiping down each machine between each individual use. We'll be wiping down other equipment, pens, tables, everything," Washington, D.C. Board of Elections spokesperson Nick Jacobs said before in-person early voting started in the US capital on Oct 27. "We'll be enforcing social distancing, and you must wear a mask to enter a vote center. We will have masks available if you forget."

The pandemic has also drastically changed this year's campaigns. During the first months of the outbreak, both presidential candidates put on hold in-person activities. But Trump returned to the campaign trail in June despite concern from health experts and local officials, while Biden has sticked to virtual and small-scale events. The president caught COVID-19 in October but has recovered.

Most of Americans disapprove of Trump Administration's handling of the pandemic, according to polls, which has put a drag on his reelection bid and has been targeted by Biden, who has promised to roll out a national strategy for testing, mandate mask wearing in federal buildings and interstate transportation, close personal protective equipment gap, and make safe and effective vaccines free to everyone.

"We are going to beat this virus. We are going to get it under control. And the first step to beating this virus is to beat Donald Trump," Biden said on Sunday. Trump, for his part, has fiercely defended his response to the pandemic and repeatedly claimed the United States is "rounding the corner."

In addition to COVID-19, economy, healthcare, race relations, Supreme Court, climate change, immigration, national security, and leadership are among top concerns for American voters. On some of these issues, Trump and Biden have presented sharply different visions and plans, a reflection of deep political and social divisions in the country.

Sumner Brown, a Democratic volunteer at an early-voting station in Charlottesville, Virginia, told Xinhua that she thinks Biden is a calm, competent, and experienced leader who can "bring the country together."

Mason Pickett, who often holds signs with words criticizing what he said are leftist agenda near the campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, said that he does not vote for Trump's personality but loves his "law and order message" and that he supports the president's tough stance on border security.