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Obama films 18 separate state-specific ‘How To Vote’ videos

by Joseph Choi - 10/13/20 4:47 PM ET

Former President Obama released multiple state-specific tutorials on how to vote on Tuesday, 21 days before the Nov. 3 election.

Looking straight into the camera, Obama said, “So much is at stake in this election, from getting the pandemic under control to building a fairer economy to taking on climate change to protecting our health care. You can change our direction on every issue. That’s the power of your vote.”

The state-specific videos included instructions for voters in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. According to a press release sent out by the Democratic National Committee, more instructional videos for other states are set to be released.

During the 2020 campaigns, Democrats have routinely accused the GOP of engaging in voter suppression, while Republicans have in turn pushed the claim that widespread voter fraud exists, despite no evidence to suggest major voter fraud occurs in the U.S.

In states such as Texas, Democrats have called for more relaxed voting rules to be adopted in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

An unprecedented number of voters are expected to turn out this year, with more than 6.6 million Americans already voting last week, more than 10 times the number who had voted at the same time during the 2016 presidential election.

Michael McDonald of the University of Florida, which runs the United States Election Project, predicts that up to 150 million people could vote this year, 65 percent of eligible voters. This would be the highest percentage of voter turnout since 1908.

In 2016, about 58 percent of eligible voters turned out to vote, similar to the rate seen in the 2012 presidential election. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is currently enjoying a wide lead over President Trump in the national polls, though state polling data in some battleground states places him in a neck-and-neck race with Trump.