Anomalies grip final stretch of US election

WASHINGTON - US Election Day is a week away. Both parties are neck and neck, tirelessly drumming up support while ramping up their attacks on each other.

A wave of chaos has surfaced ahead of what some political experts call "the most consequential election" in US history for both the United States and the world.

According to US media and analysts, these "anomalies" reveal underlying political motives and strategic interests. Many Americans are left anxious, wondering where this election will ultimately steer the country.

"Hi, this is Lara Trump calling on behalf of President Trump's campaign, and we're urging you to get out and vote before Election Day," says a robocall message recorded by Lara Trump, the former president's daughter-in-law and a co-chair of the Republican National Committee.

Data shows that at least 286,000 such robocalls have reached voters in the key swing states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada and Michigan, with the earliest going out on Oct 2.

Early in April, CNN's KFile reported that Lara Trump had sent out calls to voters' phones saying Democrats committed "massive fraud" in the 2020 election.

In 2020, Donald Trump called mail-in ballots and early voting "dangerous" and "corrupt", stating that they'd lead to "massive electoral fraud" and a "rigged" 2020 election. This year, however, he has shifted his stance, making a final push to encourage early voting among Republicans. The contrasting messages have drawn widespread national attention.

"We never want what happened in 2020 to happen again," Trump said.

Typically, Democrats lean more toward mail-in and early voting, while Republicans favor Election Day voting. According to a recent NBC News poll, most early or intended early voters back Vice President Kamala Harris, while those planning to vote on Election Day mostly support Trump.

US media and experts noted that Trump's unexpected push for early voting among Republicans reflects the fierce nature of his showdown with Harris. While changing Republicans' long-standing voting habits isn't easy, the Trump campaign is determined to keep Democrats from dominating the early voting advantage.

Most states have opened early voting. Georgia set a new record on its first day, with over 328,000 voters casting ballots, which is a strong reflection of the race's intensity, according to the BBC.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently launched an online petition backing First and Second Amendment freedoms in support of Trump's candidacy. The billionaire promised 1 million US dollars in prizes for each randomly picked voter a day in key swing states who sign the petition.

The outcome in the swing states will determine this year's presidential election, as Trump and Harris are locked in a tight race in those states, said US election and polling experts.

So far, Musk has retweeted photos of eight winners holding oversized million-dollar checks on his X platform.

"The money is the latest example of Musk using his extraordinary wealth to influence the tightly contested presidential race" between Trump and Harris, said a Reuters report.

Musk used to be a Trump critic during his presidency and voted predominantly for Democrats. Yet, he became all at once a vocal Trump surrogate in 2022. This year, he set up America PAC, a political action committee supporting Trump, donating at least 75 million dollars to date.

Analyses point out that Musk took the U-turn partly due to a snub by the Biden administration.

In 2021, the Biden administration began implementing its campaign promises to boost electric vehicles (EVs). Back then, Tesla produced about two-thirds of the EVs on US roads.

Yet, Tesla is the only major US automaker without a labor union. Biden, unwilling to anger the United Auto Workers union, a stronghold for the Democratic Party, irritated Musk by publicly supporting General Motors and Ford in developing the EV sector, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

Harris is also seeking support from celebrities. In September, after the presidential debate in Philadelphia, Taylor Swift, a mega-star with hundreds of millions of followers on social media, announced that she would vote for Harris. Hollywood icons like George Clooney, Anne Hathaway and Jennifer Lawrence have also endorsed Harris.

Yet, celebrity endorsements may backfire. YouGov's September poll found that about one-fifth of the respondents felt Swift's endorsement would dampen their enthusiasm for Harris. Similarly, a Quinnipiac University poll showed that 21 percent of respondents believed Musk's endorsement could weaken their support for Trump.

In the past three months, Trump has survived multiple assassination attempts. Harris's campaign office in Arizona was also shot at and vandalized. Political violence is on the rise as polarization and public opinion divisions intensify ahead of the election.

Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, noted that attacks on candidates are nearly inevitable in today's highly tense political and public opinion climate.

Mutual attacks between the two parties never ceased despite both Trump and Harris condemning political violence. As Election Day nears, the rhetoric has intensified, with extreme terms like "fraud" and "criminal" becoming commonplace.

At a recent rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Trump slammed Harris as more "radical left crazy" than some left-wing Democrats. Meanwhile, at a rally in Atlanta, Georgia, Harris targeted Trump's age and stamina, mocking him as unable to "finish a thought".

A recent Quinnipiac University poll found that nearly three-quarters of potential voters are worried about the political violence that might follow the election results. Tim Malloy, the university's poll analyst, noted that many voters fear the escalation of political rhetoric could ignite such violence.