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A4 U.S. NEWS
Saturday 22 September 2018
Early voting begins as midterms season enters final phase

By STEVE PEOPLES and STEVE allies are ramping up voter
KARNOWSKI outreach programs in sev-
Associated Press eral states to mark the be-
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Much ginning of the early voting
of the political world is con- phase.
sumed with a battle over a The Democratic allies, Pri-
Supreme Court nominee, orities USA Action and the
an expanding international Senate Majority PAC, for
trade war and President example, are launching a
Donald Trump's social me- multimillion-dollar digital ad
dia posts. Yet in Minnesota, campaign next week as
the first votes of the 2018 part of a voter mobilization
midterm elections are be- program across five states
ing cast. that targets African-Ameri-
Voting machines are set up cans, young Hispanics and
inside city buildings. A se- other young people.
ries of get-out-the-vote ral- One of the new ads, shared
lies is scheduled. And each with The Associated Press,
party is spending millions of highlights the rise of white
dollars to push its supporters supremacists in the Trump
to the polls. era. In another, a young
While Election Day 2018 is black man says, "I'm willing
technically Nov. 6, Minne- to do whatever it takes to
sota law allows in-person vote this year."
voting to begin Friday — a As is the case in many
full 46 days early — mak- midterm battlegrounds,
ing it the first battleground Voting booths stand ready in downtown Minneapolis on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018, for Friday's outside groups for several
opening of early voting in Minnesota. Minnesota and South Dakota are tied for the earliest start in
state to begin casting actu- the country for early voting in the 2018 midterm elections. weeks have been dump-
al votes in the broader fight Associated Press ing money into Minnesota,
for control of Congress. which features at least four
Voters in every corner of nia, Montana and Arizona "It's like Election Day every The commencement of competitive House elec-
the nation will soon follow. are among seven others day," said Jake Schneider, voting in key states under- tions, two U.S. Senate con-
South Dakota also opens that allow early voting in spokesman for Minnesota scores the heightened sig- tests and a governor's race.
early voting on Friday, and the subsequent two weeks. Republican Senate candi- nificance of virtually every Each of the political parties
four more states follow in It may feel early, but make date Karin Housley. "It really major development — po- deployed paid staff and
the next six days, including no mistake: The final phase changes the dynamic of litical or otherwise — on the volunteers on the ground
key states including New of the 2018 midterm season an election. It really does. state and national stage several months ago to
Jersey and Missouri. Califor- has begun. And it's exciting." in the coming days. Eco- identify supporters and per-
nomic indicators, the presi- suade them to vote.
dent's tweets, new revela- Democrats are focused on
tions in the special counsel turning out "communities of
investigation and even the color" in Minnesota, partic-
weather begin to matter ularly in the areas around
much more as voters de- Minneapolis that feature
cide whether to go to the large Somali and Southeast
polls. Asian populations, accord-
It's been an inauspicious ing to Ramsey Reid, the
beginning to the voting Midwestern regional direc-
season for Trump and his tor for the Democratic Na-
Republican Party, which tional Committee.
continue to struggle under Democrats are working to
the weight of near-con- ensure that minorities, who
stant self-imposed crises are considered more spo-
and chaos. radic voters in some cas-
The president escalated a es, comprise more than 8
trade war with China in re- percent of the Minnesota
cent days, triggering new electorate, Reid said, not-
waves of concern among ing that they made up less
farmers and major employ- than 6 percent in the last
ers across Minnesota and midterm elections.
beyond. And the GOP's Republicans are focused
continued embrace of Su- on trying to bank their own
preme Court nominee Brett set of "low-propensity" vot-
Kavanaugh, despite an al- ers in the initial days of early
legation of decades-old voting, a group identified
sexual misconduct, threat- through several months of
ens to further alienate on-the-ground work with its
suburban women, a key expanding network of field
constituency this fall that staff and volunteers, ac-
has already largely turned cording to Matt Dailer, the
away from Trump. political strategy director
Political parties and their for the Republican National