US elections 2020: Biden leads in polls going into Election Day but battlegrounds tight

The ugliest election campaign in modern US history is drawing to a close with intimation of violence and intimidation of Democrats opposition and its voters, implicitly endorsed by President Trump, coming to the fore 48 hours before the final round of balloting begins on Tuesday. Still significantly behind in polls, Trump on Saturday approvingly tweeted a video of a convoy of trucks and cars bearing flags and banners supporting him as they surrounded a Biden campaign bus on the road in Texas in an effort to browbeat Democrats. “I LOVE TEXAS!” Trump wrote alongside a video accompanied by music whose lyrics included the rap song “Welcome to the Red Kingdom.”

The total spending of the 2020 US election cycle, including presidential and congressional, has reached nearly $14 billion, surpassing more than the combined figures of the amount spent during the last two election cycles, a study has found.

In the study titled ‘The Effects of Large Group Meetings on the Spread of COVID-19: The Case of Trump Rallies', researchers concluded 18 rallies by Trump held between June 20 and September 22 "ultimately resulted in more than 30,000 incremental confirmed cases of COVID-19” and “likely led to more than 700 deaths”, which may not necessarily have been among attendees.

Obama, the 44th president, and Biden, his vice president who wants to be the 46th, held drive-in rallies in Flint and Detroit, predominantly Black cities where strong turnout will be essential to swing the longtime Democratic state to Biden's column after Trump won it in 2016. "Three days until the most important election of our lifetime and that includes mine, which was pretty important," said Obama, urging Democrats to get to the polls.