With exactly a week to go for the US election 2020 on November 3rd, presidential candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden&nbsp;will be watching a few states more closely than others.

How is the president of the United States elected and what is the role of the electoral college in an election process?

The swing states also are known as purple or the battleground states will play a key role in deciding the next president of America. In these battleground states, the presidential race is expected to be the closest, where the winner remains unclear until the final votes are counted. The presidential candidates often spend more time and money in these states, than other states for various factors.&nbsp;

How are the swing states determined?

The swing states are predicted at the beginning of the election cycle based on political history, ongoing crises, and the number of electoral votes. The states with a larger number of electors are crucial for the battle for the presidency in America.

What is an electoral college?

When Americans go to the polls, they won’t be technically voting for Donald Trump or Joe Biden directly. The citizens will vote for the electoral college, also known as the electors.&nbsp;

Remember the 2016 election? Donald Trump became the President of the United States despite getting almost 3 million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton.&nbsp;

Each state has a specific number of electors, based on the population. The candidate which wins the popular votes in a state will get the support of all the electors of that particular state. So, if a candidate wins a state with the highest number of electors, even if it a razor-thin win, he will receive all the electoral votes of that state. Therefore, it is possible for a candidate to lose the popular vote across the country and still win the presidency.&nbsp;&nbsp;

This year, there are 538 electors and the winning presidential candidate will require a majority of at least 270 votes. The experts &amp; campaign teams had identified 6 core battleground states in 2020, on the basis of the electoral college and&nbsp;the ongoing political crises. But with the election day inching closer the S.S. Electoral map is undergoing a series of changes with a dozen states showing sharp swings. At the last stretch of the biggest election battle of the year, the campaign teams are focusing on Wisconsin, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Nevada, Michigan, New Hampshire, Arizona, Georgia, and&nbsp;Ohio.&nbsp;

Most of these states have historically been unpredictable, swinging from one party to another. These are the reasons why the candidates focus on the battleground states rather than a nation-wide campaign. In 2016, two-thirds of the campaign events were held in just six states. So, every election year, these battleground states play a crucial role in electing a president.

Electoral vote distribution 2020

California: 55 
&nbsp; 
Texas: 38 
&nbsp; 
Florida: 29 
&nbsp; 
New York: 29 
&nbsp; 
Illinois: 20 
&nbsp; 
Pennsylvania: 20 
&nbsp; 
Ohio: 18 
&nbsp; 
Georgia: 16 
&nbsp; 
Michigan: 16 
&nbsp; 
North Carolina: 15 
&nbsp; 
New Jersey: 14 
&nbsp; 
Virginia: 13 
&nbsp; 
Washington: 12 
&nbsp; 
Arizona: 11 
&nbsp; 
Minnesota: 10 
&nbsp; 
Iowa: 6 
&nbsp; 
Nevada: 6 
&nbsp; 
New Hampshire: 5 
&nbsp; 
Total electoral votes: 538 
Majority needed to win: 270 
&nbsp; 
Key battleground states 2020 
 
Wisconsin, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Nevada, Michigan, New Hampshire, Arizona, Georgia, and Ohio 
&nbsp;

With exactly a week to go for the US election 2020 on November 3rd, presidential candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden will be watching a few states more closely than others.

With exactly a week to go for the US election 2020 on November 3rd, presidential candidates Donald Trump and Joe Biden will be watching a few states more closely than others. How is the president of the United States elected and what is the role of the electoral college in an election process? The swing states also are known as purple or the battleground states will play a key role in deciding the next president of America. In these battleground states, the presidential race is expected to be the closest, where the winner remains unclear until the final votes are counted. The presidential candidates often spend more time and money in these states, than other states for various factors. How are the swing states determined? The swing states are predicted at the beginning of the election cycle based on political history, ongoing crises, and the number of electoral votes. The states with a larger number of electors are crucial for the battle for the presidency in America. What is an electoral college? When Americans go to the polls, they won’t be technically voting for Donald Trump or Joe Biden directly. The citizens will vote for the electoral college, also known as the electors. Remember the 2016 election? Donald Trump became the President of the United States despite getting almost 3 million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. Each state has a specific number of electors, based on the population. The candidate which wins the popular votes in a state will get the support of all the electors of that particular state. So, if a candidate wins a state with the highest number of electors, even if it a razor-thin win, he will receive all the electoral votes of that state. Therefore, it is possible for a candidate to lose the popular vote across the country and still win the presidency. This year, there are 538 electors and the winning presidential candidate will require a majority of at least 270 votes. The experts & campaign teams had identified 6 core battleground states in 2020, on the basis of the electoral college and the ongoing political crises. But with the election day inching closer the S.S. Electoral map is undergoing a series of changes with a dozen states showing sharp swings. At the last stretch of the biggest election battle of the year, the campaign teams are focusing on Wisconsin, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Nevada, Michigan, New Hampshire, Arizona, Georgia, and Ohio. Most of these states have historically been unpredictable, swinging from one party to another. These are the reasons why the candidates focus on the battleground states rather than a nation-wide campaign. In 2016, two-thirds of the campaign events were held in just six states. So, every election year, these battleground states play a crucial role in electing a president. Electoral vote distribution 2020 California: 55 Texas: 38 Florida: 29 New York: 29 Illinois: 20 Pennsylvania: 20 Ohio: 18 Georgia: 16 Michigan: 16 North Carolina: 15 New Jersey: 14 Virginia: 13 Washington: 12 Arizona: 11 Minnesota: 10 Iowa: 6 Nevada: 6 New Hampshire: 5 Total electoral votes: 538 Majority needed to win: 270 Key battleground states 2020 Wisconsin, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Nevada, Michigan, New Hampshire, Arizona, Georgia, and Ohio

US election 2020: Battleground states and electoral colleges

More than 60 million Americans have cast ballots in the US&nbsp;presidential election with seven days to go, a record-breaking pace that could lead to the highest voter turnout in over a century, according to data from the US&nbsp;Elections Project on Monday.

The tally is the latest sign of intense interest in the contest between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden, as well as voters’ desire to reduce their risk of exposure to COVID-19, which has killed about 225,000 people across the United States.

EARLY VOTING IN AMERICAN POLITICS

Early voting also known as advance polling or pre-poll voting, is a convenient voting process for citizens to cast their vote prior to the scheduled election day. For the United States America, early voting is similar to absentee voting and the pre-polling period varies from state-to-state. &nbsp;

The process of early voting was introduced for Americans living outside the country and for the members of the military, merchant marine, and their families. American citizens have a varied option to vote early. Ballots, mail, fax, email and even on web portals. But since the beginning of the 2020 election cycle and the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, mail-in voting has suddenly become a subject of controversy.

WHAT IS MAIL-IN VOTING?

Americans have been voting by mail in the U.S. For close to a hundred years now, but it has never been an issue as it in the 2020 election. And there are two reasons for this. &nbsp;

The numbers of voters who vote early has increased in recent years and with the pandemic casting a shadow over the presidential polls, the democrats have pushed for citizens to vote by mail. With the election day inching closer, the early voter turnout is breaking records almost every day. In the 2016 presidential election, approximately 33 million votes were cast via mailed out ballots. Which makes for about a quarter of all ballots cast across the country.

And 2020 is witnessing a staggering increase in the early voter turnout, even in states which didn’t usually use mail-in voting. &nbsp;

The second reason for the mail-in ballot voting becoming an issue is the president of the United States Donald Trump. Trump and his team have repeatedly been claiming that the widespread mail-in voting will inevitably lead to "Fraud”. They're very little evidence for that. But despite trump's unsubstantiated claims, the number people running out to voter early is historic this year. &nbsp;With a highly polarised election inching towards its end, all hopes lie on the vote count &amp; result announcement. &nbsp;

More than 60 million Americans have cast ballots in the US presidential election with seven days to go, a record-breaking pace that could lead to the highest voter turnout in over a century, according to data from the US Elections Project on Monday.

More than 60 million Americans have cast ballots in the US presidential election with seven days to go, a record-breaking pace that could lead to the highest voter turnout in over a century, according to data from the US Elections Project on Monday. The tally is the latest sign of intense interest in the contest between Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden, as well as voters’ desire to reduce their risk of exposure to COVID-19, which has killed about 225,000 people across the United States. EARLY VOTING IN AMERICAN POLITICS Early voting also known as advance polling or pre-poll voting, is a convenient voting process for citizens to cast their vote prior to the scheduled election day. For the United States America, early voting is similar to absentee voting and the pre-polling period varies from state-to-state. The process of early voting was introduced for Americans living outside the country and for the members of the military, merchant marine, and their families. American citizens have a varied option to vote early. Ballots, mail, fax, email and even on web portals. But since the beginning of the 2020 election cycle and the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, mail-in voting has suddenly become a subject of controversy. WHAT IS MAIL-IN VOTING? Americans have been voting by mail in the U.S. For close to a hundred years now, but it has never been an issue as it in the 2020 election. And there are two reasons for this. The numbers of voters who vote early has increased in recent years and with the pandemic casting a shadow over the presidential polls, the democrats have pushed for citizens to vote by mail. With the election day inching closer, the early voter turnout is breaking records almost every day. In the 2016 presidential election, approximately 33 million votes were cast via mailed out ballots. Which makes for about a quarter of all ballots cast across the country. And 2020 is witnessing a staggering increase in the early voter turnout, even in states which didn’t usually use mail-in voting. The second reason for the mail-in ballot voting becoming an issue is the president of the United States Donald Trump. Trump and his team have repeatedly been claiming that the widespread mail-in voting will inevitably lead to "Fraud”. They're very little evidence for that. But despite trump's unsubstantiated claims, the number people running out to voter early is historic this year. With a highly polarised election inching towards its end, all hopes lie on the vote count & result announcement.

US election 2020: The controversy behind early voting

The rush to understand, predict and head off the <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/covid-19-patients-recovering-quickly-after-getting-remdesivir-an-experimental-drug-293051">COVID-19 outbreak</a> has prompted world researchers to create several tools to detect the virus. It has prompted them to analyse hundreds of ways to avoid the virus.&nbsp;

A professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg has created a tool to determine the COVID-19 infection through the sound of a person’s cough, speech and breathing.

Currently, most of these efforts are at a stage in which the researchers are gathering speech and coughing recordings, which are then fed to AI algorithms to determine whether someone has the COVID-19 infection. 
 
<a href="wionews.com/world/new-thermal-scanning-tech-could-save-millions-of-lives-during-the-covid-19-crisis-293175">Also read: New thermal scanning tech could save millions of lives</a>

The COVID-19 voice detector, as professor Rita Singh calls it, traces the micro signatures of one’s voice, which are not audible to the untrained listener but are nevertheless present.

Rita Singh is a Computer Science Research Professor at the Carnegie Mellon University, whose team has created the COVID voice detector.

“Any condition affecting the lungs or the respiratory system, as has been established in the cases of COVID-19 infections, has a palpable effect on the voice. The tool is basically a self-learning system that is now trying to learn signatures of a COVID infection in the voice, not just in cough,” said Singh.

A similar initiative is being carried out by the Mumbai-based Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Wadhwani’s ‘cough against COVID’ mobile application asks the user to record the sound of their coughing to conduct s test of COVID-19.

As the disease brings much of the planet to a halt, scientists and health experts have called for technology to play a bigger part in tackling the pandemic.

Where on one side, the researchers are working on detecting the infection from the sound of cough, another study shows that the two-metre distance considered as a safety measure to avoid close contact is not safe enough.

A recent Western-led study suggests that two metres might not be far enough away if someone lets an uncovered cough loose in your direction.

Virologists at a Canadian hospital have explored that cough airflow, produced by human subjects, is naturally infected with seasonal flu. As per the study, if someone coughs unobstructively from a couple of metres away, then the cough has reached you and is still moving. The study also shows that as much as 10 per cent of the fine droplets from cough remain suspended in the air even after four seconds. The findings add calls for these efforts in combination with social distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A third such UK-based study shows that hands dried on a paper towel spread less virus to other surfaces. The researchers deliberately contaminated four people’s hands with a harmless virus and dried them in four different ways. The average surface contamination was more than 10 times higher after contact with jet air-dried hands compared with those dried on paper towels. 
&nbsp;

The rush to understand, predict and head off the COVID-19 outbreak has prompted world researchers to create several tools to detect the virus. It has prompted them to analyse hundreds of ways to avoid the virus.

The rush to understand, predict and head off the COVID-19 outbreak has prompted world researchers to create several tools to detect the virus. It has prompted them to analyse hundreds of ways to avoid the virus. A professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburg has created a tool to determine the COVID-19 infection through the sound of a person’s cough, speech and breathing. Currently, most of these efforts are at a stage in which the researchers are gathering speech and coughing recordings, which are then fed to AI algorithms to determine whether someone has the COVID-19 infection. Also read: New thermal scanning tech could save millions of lives The COVID-19 voice detector, as professor Rita Singh calls it, traces the micro signatures of one’s voice, which are not audible to the untrained listener but are nevertheless present. Rita Singh is a Computer Science Research Professor at the Carnegie Mellon University, whose team has created the COVID voice detector. “Any condition affecting the lungs or the respiratory system, as has been established in the cases of COVID-19 infections, has a palpable effect on the voice. The tool is basically a self-learning system that is now trying to learn signatures of a COVID infection in the voice, not just in cough,” said Singh. A similar initiative is being carried out by the Mumbai-based Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Wadhwani’s ‘cough against COVID’ mobile application asks the user to record the sound of their coughing to conduct s test of COVID-19. As the disease brings much of the planet to a halt, scientists and health experts have called for technology to play a bigger part in tackling the pandemic. Where on one side, the researchers are working on detecting the infection from the sound of cough, another study shows that the two-metre distance considered as a safety measure to avoid close contact is not safe enough. A recent Western-led study suggests that two metres might not be far enough away if someone lets an uncovered cough loose in your direction. Virologists at a Canadian hospital have explored that cough airflow, produced by human subjects, is naturally infected with seasonal flu. As per the study, if someone coughs unobstructively from a couple of metres away, then the cough has reached you and is still moving. The study also shows that as much as 10 per cent of the fine droplets from cough remain suspended in the air even after four seconds. The findings add calls for these efforts in combination with social distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. A third such UK-based study shows that hands dried on a paper towel spread less virus to other surfaces. The researchers deliberately contaminated four people’s hands with a harmless virus and dried them in four different ways. The average surface contamination was more than 10 times higher after contact with jet air-dried hands compared with those dried on paper towels.

Independent researchers explore ways to detect and prevent coronavirus

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Zee News Rajasthan

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Dikshita Pattanaik

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