US Election Latest: Early voting sets records while trouble is brewing for Labour

• Early voters setting records

• Trouble for the Labour Party in the US?

• More storms brewing abroad...

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Early voting breaks records in some states

So what's the state of play at two weeks out from the Election Day? By this time in two weeks, we will likely be on tenterhooks to know what the final state of play is across the pond.

While that makes Election Day a long one for Brits, it's actually a long one for Americans too. By 11pm British time yesterday (22nd October) around 19 million votes had been cast in the upcoming election.

This is breaking records in key swing states including Georgia and North Carolina, according to The Associated Press. Republicans used to be strong at ensuring an early turnout, yet as we covered in our Betfair Explainer on how Americans vote, Trump made early-voting a key plank of his claims of a rigged election in recent years.

In other key news, Trump is the favourite to win all seven swing states that will decide the election, on the Betfair Exchange.

Trump is the clear favourite in Arizona at 1/31.33, Georgia at 1/2, and North Carolina at 4/9. The former President is ahead in four others that voted Biden in 2020. This comes as Trump is at 5/8 odds of winning nationally - giving him a 62% chance of winning in this election according to punters.

Labour Party vs Trump campaign...ding ding ding

In the crossover you never expected to see, the Trump campaign has filed a legal complaint against Keir Starmer's Labour Party.

While this has been a tradition for many Presidential campaigns - with Labour party aides going over the pond to support the Democratic Party's efforts - it reached a new audience recently when a Labour staffer's post reporting the same reached a new audience.

While Labour insists it is not funding any travel or accommodation - not falling foul of any campaign financing rules - the Trump campaign has questioned this with the Federal Election Commission.

This brings into question the UK Government's relationship with Trump if he wins the upcoming election.

The Labour Party has recently engaged in some love-bombing of Trump as we reported last month, trying to overcome some of its Cabinet members' claims about Trump in recent years, before they won the recent UK Election.

It'll hardly be the worst of Trump's legal woes in any case.

Not the only trouble abroad

That's not the only foreign policy engaging the Presidential campaigns in this final two weeks.

In the United States, even American citizens living abroad can vote - and the Democratic National Committee believes that around 1.6m US voters are eligible to vote in the seven key Swing States.

The Democrats in particular have been working hard to gain these votes, sending the campaign group "Democrats Abroad" around $300,000 and aiming to register those Americans to vote.

The Trump campaign on the other hand, is on the offensive, challenging the validity of those votes in states such as North Carolina and Pennsylvania. On the Betfair Exchange, all Swing States are currently favouring Trump.

Not much could derail the final two weeks of the Presidential campaign, yet the overheating war in the Middle East could have an impact.

As our own Paul Krishnamurty mentioned recently, foreign policy could have an outsized effect on this election.

Yesterday, the Biden's Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Israel for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He is seeking a breakthrough in talks for a ceasefire, following Israel's high-profile killings of terrorist leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah.

This is an emotive and important issue for many Americans, especially Jewish Americans and Arab Americans. It could well hurt either party at the ballot box.

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