Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden voted early in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware on Wednesday, joining more than 74 million Americans who have voted with six days remaining in the contest.
As Election Day looms, Biden did not campaign in a swing state Wednesday. Instead, he received a briefing from public health experts on the coronavirus as cases of the virus surge nationwide.
The former vice president has made the coronavirus the central focus of his campaign against President Donald Trump and has sought to draw a contrast with the president on how he’d handle the pandemic.
“Even if I win, it’s going to take a lot of hard work to end this pandemic,” Biden said. “I’m not running on the false promises of being able to end this pandemic by flipping a switch. But I do promise this: We will start on day one doing the right things.”
More than 226,000 people have died from the virus in the US. More than 71,000 people a day are testing positive on average, up from 51,000 two weeks ago.
Biden said President Trump’s administration has “just given up” on fighting the coronavirus.
“Trump makes a lot of big pronouncements, but they don’t hold up. He gets his photo op and he gets out. He leaves everyone else to suffer the consequence of his failure to make a responsible plan,” Biden said.
His campaign is careful to adhere to social distancing recommendations for all of his events, and Biden himself receives frequent briefings from public health experts on the pandemic. He’s also released multiple plans focused on how he’d combat the spread of the virus and help schools and small businesses reopen safely.
Trump, who has been holding more campaign events in battleground states amid rising coronavirus cases, voted on Saturday at a public library in the battleground state of Florida.
Biden is expected to easily win the state of Delaware. He holds a comfortable lead in national polls but statistics in battleground states that might decide the election on November 3 are tighter.
Early voting in the election has now surpassed 70 million, more than half of the total turnout in 2016.