Early in-person voting gets underway in key presidential battleground state

With less than four weeks until Election Day, the first votes will be cast Wednesday, Oct. 9, in a battleground state. Early in-person voting began in Arizona, at traditional polling places.

Both vice presidential nominees, JD Vance and Tim Walz, will be making appearances in Arizona Wednesday, highlighting the importance of the state.

Arizona has 11 electoral votes. Pundits see it as one of the seven or eight swing states that will determine the winner of the presidential election as the candidates try to get to the magic number of 270.

President Joe Biden won Arizona in 2020 by about 10,000 votes, despite the insistence from former President Donald Trump that there was widespread voter fraud and machine malfunctions. The claims became become so intense and vitriolic that in Maricopa County, some schools will not serve as polling places this year due to harassment of workers and safety concerns.

The Real Clear Politics’ average of polls this week shows Trump ahead by about a point-and-a-half in Arizona or a 49% to 47.6% margin over Vice President Kamala Harris.

With the race extremely tight, Arizona will see visits from both candidates in the next few days. Vice President Harris is slated to campaign in Phoenix on Thursday, Oct. 10. Donald Trump will hold a rally there on Sunday.

Early in-person voting in Arizona’s 15 counties runs until Friday, Nov. 1.