President Trump, Joe Biden to hold dueling Thursday rallies in Tampa

Biden, Trump to appear in Tampa

Evan Axelbank reports

TAMPA, Fla. - Both presidential candidates will be campaigning in Tampa -- on the same day.

On Thursday, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden will be in Tampa holding separate campaign rallies as they push for any last-minute voters in the battleground state.

Trump's campaign announced Wednesday the rally will take place at 1:30 p.m. in the north parking lot of Raymond James Stadium, which is also an early voting site as well as a COVID-19 testing location.

On Tuesday, his daughter, Ivanka, took the stage in Sarasota.

Meanwhile, Biden's campaign announced his return to Tampa on Monday. The drive-in rally is tentatively planned for 6:30 p.m., but there is no word yet on where the event will take place.

Tampa prepares for dueling rallies during early voting and pandemic

Dan Matics reports

The campaign stops come just days before Election Day, and while Florida voters have turned out in record-breaking numbers. More than 6.9 million Floridians had voted as of Wednesday morning, with six days remaining before the Nov. 3 general election.

In all, 6,921,358 people had cast ballots, nearly 48 percent of the registered voters in the state.

Social media fatigue sets in as Election Day nears

Researchers at the University of South Florida say social media users admit they rely on social media for voting information, but the environment is less than pleasant.

Registered Democrats had returned about 621,000 more mail-in ballots than Republicans, while GOP voters were leading in in-person early voting by about 375,000 ballots. Voters who have no party affiliation or who are registered with third parties had cast nearly 1.5 million ballots.

Florida State University Professor Carol Weissert said turnout in the election could approach a record level. “People are going to vote in this one,” Weissert said. “There is an enormous amount of interest in this election. We are going to have really terrific turnout in Florida.”

The 1992 presidential contest had the highest modern turnout rate at 83 percent.

More than 1.9 million vote-by-mail ballots had not been returned to local elections supervisors as of Wednesday morning. Early voting sites will be open across the state through Saturday and in some counties on Sunday.

VOTER GUIDE: Florida early voting hours and locations

Information from the News Service of Florida was used in this report.

2020 Election Politics