As it happened: Trump and Biden descend on Midwest battlegrounds

1. The two candidates - President Donald Trump and Joe Biden - head to the Midwest, another key battleground
2. Some 84 million people have already voted ahead of election day on 3 November
3. The country is on course for its highest electoral turnout rate in more than a century

That's a wrap for today

Thanks for joining our live rolling coverage of the presidential as the countdown to election day on Tuesday continues.

In today's developments:

• After yesterday's dueling rallies in Florida, both candidates have been in the US Midwest today in a last minute dash to convince voters that they are the man to run the country
• Trump's Friday tour featured stops Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin - a state he narrowly won in 2016
• Biden has also been in Minnesota and Wisconsin, as well Iowa
• Over 85 million votes have already been cast, leading to predictions that turnout this year could break records
• More people have already voted in Hawaii and Texas than did in the entire 2016 election, and other states such as California, Georgia and Arizona are quickly following behind in vote tallies

We'll be back tomorrow with more campaign coverage.

Stock market drops to lowest level since March

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has fallen to its lowest level since coronavirus lockdowns were implemented in March.

A falling stock market in the final days of Trump's first term, is sure to sting the president, who often points to high stock prices as evidence of his accomplishments on managing the US economy, as our North America Editor Jon Sopel points out.

Who's ahead in the polls?

BBC

With just four days until election day, Biden has a solid lead nationally in opinion polls.

But his advantage looks less assured in the battleground states, such as Florida and Wisconsin.

Those states, which were won by Trump in 2016, will likely decide who ultimately wins the White House.

Read more:

Who is leading - Trump or Biden?

A political message from Madame Tussauds Berlin

Reuters TV

Berlin's Madame Tussauds wax museum has moved their sculpture of Trump to the skip in anticipation of next's week's election.

"Dump Trump Make America Great Again," says an accompanying sign on the display, which has been placed by the museum's entrance.

The US president is surrounded by bags of rubbish and cardboard cutouts of his tweets. Other US presidents, including Barack Obama and Ronald Reagan are positioned around him, outside of the dumpster.

Tussaud's marketing manager Orkide Yalcindag told Reuters: “Today’s activity is rather of a symbolic character ahead of the elections in the United States... We here at Madame Tussauds Berlin removed Donald Trump’s waxwork as a preparatory measure.”

Last month at New York's Madame Tussauds location, employees placed a face mask on the US president, to remind visitors to wear masks.

Trump in Green Bay

Getty Images

Trump was just speaking in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

"We win this state – you know what – it’s all over," the president said, referencing Wisconsin's importance as a battleground that could go either way.

Trump also tells his supporters that this election is far more important than 2016, accusing Democrats of having gone too far left.

"If I don't sound like a typical politician it's because I'm not," Trump added.

Wisconsin is currently seeing a surge in Covid-19 cases. The governor has warned of an impending crisis as hospitals are filling up. Earlier, Green Bay hospitals issued a statement warning that the president's Friday rally could worsen the situation.

However, Trump backers are still turning up at rallies and he has the support of at least one famous fan. Brett Favre, a former (and very famous) quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, the city's professional American football team, endorsed the president.

WATCH: 'How we learn about voting in India, France and US'

While the US is seeing record early voting figures for next week's election, you may be surprised that it trails other developed countries when it comes to voter turnout.

Historically, turnout in the US has hovered around 50% since the 1970s. The turnouts at the last general elections in India and France both beat that.

Young people from these three nations tell us about their experiences of learning to vote, and whether it's stressed to them as a civic duty.

US election: 'How we learn about voting in India, France and US'

Georgia politician tests positive after counter-Biden rally

A Republican congressman in Georgia who held a pro-Trump rally on Tuesday while Joe Biden was visiting the state has tested positive for Covid-19.

Representative Drew Ferguson said in a statement that he began to feel ill on Wednesday night and that, after consulting with his doctor, he decided to self-isolate at home.

Governor Brian Kemp, who also co-hosted the rally, said on Friday that he too would be self-isolating after being exposed over the previous 48 hours to someone who had been infected.

Kemp and his wife both tested negative on Friday, his office said in a statement.

World reacts to long US voter queues: 'Sort it out!'

Getty Images

You may think waiting 11 hours to vote would be the height of frustration, but not for one family in Georgia.

"We made it, y'all," says Johnta Austin in one viral video filmed as they reach the front of the queue, describing the lengthy process as an "honour".

There are similar stories across the US.

But globally, people have been wondering why on earth it takes so long to cast a vote.

A British man wrote: "Dear USA, I'm 58 and not once in my life have I had to queue to vote. Sort it out!"

One man in India pointed out that his country handles more election ballots than any other democracy in the world, and no such long queues have been seen in previous elections.

Read the full story here.

Your Questions Answered: Does the electoral college system skew the results?

Ritu Prasad

BBC News writer, Florida

BBC

We've been asking our readers for their most pressing questions about the US election. Now it's our turn to respond.

Lindsay Stewart, 37, from Aberdeen, UK, asks: Is the electoral college system still fit for purpose today or does it unfairly skew the result?

As it stands now, the more populous states (like California and Texas) are more underrepresented by the college than the lower population states, which some people say is not fair because it gives states where fewer people live more electoral power.

All but two states say it's winner-takes-all for their electoral votes, so whoever gets the most votes gets all the electoral college votes too, whether that's a difference of one vote or one thousand.

In 2016, this is how Trump was able to win big hitters in the electoral college like Florida and Wisconsin, even though his popular vote margin was slim.

Essentially, this means much of the battle for the White House takes place in a handful of competitive states that could swing either way. (To get a better sense of this, try our predict the president battleground states game. It's fun, promise.)

For decades, there's been a steady amount of support among the public to nix this system, according to the Pew Research Center. Right now, around 58% want to ditch it - but notably, attitudes have grown increasingly partisan since 2016, with more Republicans saying they support the system just as it is.

One suggestion floated to fix this dissonance between the electoral college and popular vote is to award electors proportionally instead.

But any changes to this voting system will need signing off from both two-thirds of Congress and three-fourths of the states - which is nearly impossible.

Click here if you want to know more about this project or send in a question of your own.

Republicans flock to... Iowa

Presidential candidates are campaigning hard in the US Midwest today - but curiously, so are Republican senators.

A number of them have been flooding Iowa in recent days.

We've spotted Iowa senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley, as well as Ted Cruz of Texas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas.

“The Democrats have gone bat crap crazy," Cruz said at the event in Sioux City. "That, by the way, is a technical medical definition. They are galloping to the left."

The non-Iowan Republicans are in the Hawkeye States ostensibly to campaign for Trump - but some close political-watchers wonder if it could also be a sign that they are eyeing their chances of taking on the party mantle once he is out of office - whether after this election or the next one.

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Tom Cotton's travel schedule seems to betray his presidential ambitions

Iowa, along with New Hampshire, are two of the earliest states to hold primary elections, which are the contests where party candidates are determined before the general election.

Senator Cotton, who seems to have obvious presidential ambitions, has been coming and going from Iowa and New Hampshire frequently in the past few months. You might remember him as the senator who described slavery as a "necessary evil" in a New York Times op-ed this summer.

What's still ahead for Friday?

Trump spoke for over an hour in Michigan, wrapping up his first of three rallies for the day. Next up are rallies in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and then Rochester, Minnesota.

Biden delivered remarks in Des Moines, Iowa. Later today, he'll be at a drive-in rally in St Paul, Minnesota, and will give a speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

With only four days to go until election day, vote-counting starts, the candidates are both eager to stick to their established messages.

Don't expect either of them to waiver too far from their scripts in the final days of the 2020 race.

Voters' Views: I 'would never dream of voting for Trump'

Members of our voter panel have been sharing their voting experiences with us.

James D Clark is an “old school Republican” who cast his vote for a Democrat for the first time.

He graduated from Oxford University and is a tax lawyer who lives in Fairfax, Virginia. We featured him in our story about voters reacting to Donald Trump’s tax returns.

Despite his Republican past he “would never dream of voting for Trump" he says.

He mailed his absentee ballot in for Joe Biden in September.

James

Could misleading ‘vote fraud’ claims undermine the election?

Marianna Spring

Specialist disinformation and social media reporter

EPA

Experts tell me they’re worried that false claims about fraud and the supposed unreliability of mail-in voting could undermine faith in the US election result.

Our Reality Check team looked into the claims. They found that numerous national and state-level studies have shown that there have been isolated cases, but in general, voting fraud is extremely rare.

That hasn’t stopped President Trump and his supporters from suggesting that they might not trust the result. On more than 70 occasions, the president has tweeted messages that cast doubt on or criticised mail-in voting, mentioned voter fraud or referenced “rigged” elections, according to an analysis by BBC Monitoring

Nina Jankowicz, a disinformation fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center, a think tank, told me we’re in uncharted waters.

“Voters will think - can I really trust that my vote will be counted?” she says. “That’s unprecedented in the United States. Everyone has always trusted the democratic process.”

How can you spot false claims about voting on your social media feeds before polling day? Here are some tips.

Meanwhile in Iowa...lots of honks for Biden

Biden's now on stage in Iowa, speaking to an audience in their cars.

So far he's jabbed at Trump calling himself a "stable genius", criticised his pandemic response and drawn attention to the Trump administration's lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act, the public health care scheme popularly known as Obamacare.

Biden says he'll protect healthcare, restore the healthy economy that Trump "squandered", and take the pandemic seriously.

"Honk if you want America to be united again!" Biden says, to a slew of, you guessed it, honks.

Reuters

Reuters

Reuters

Trump on stage in Michigan

Getty Images

"This is a great crowd. We have a lot of great crowds," says Trump at the top of his remarks in Waterford Township, Michigan.

Trump tells the supporters who turned up despite the near-freezing temperatures that they now "are famous" for having come to his rally.

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He repeats his oft-delivered attacks against Biden’s running mate Kamala Harris. "Crazy Bernie is like a conservative compared to her,” he says - a reference to democratic socialist Senator Bernie Sanders - in an effort to cast Harris, a former prosecutor, as a radical leftist.

It’s important to pronounce her name “exactly right”, he says, otherwise she’ll get upset. Confusingly, he also says that Harris herself is unable to correctly pronounce her own name.

Spotting Fox News Host Laura Ingraham in the crowd, he points out that she’s wearing a mask and says it because she is being “politically correct”.

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Housing Secretary Ben Carson was also in the audience

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Some nuns, such as these Dominican Sisters of Hartland, Michigan, have made surprising appearances at Trump rallies

Getty Images

Some 'politically correct' Trump supporters in Michigan

US attorney: 'I've got a jail cell' for uncertified poll watchers

A district attorney in the battleground state of Pennsylvania has warned that prison time may be in store for those engaged in a particular kind of election hi-jinx: uncertified poll watching.

"I’ve got a jail cell, and I’ve got criminal charges and you can stand in front of a Philadelphia jury - which, by the way, is a diverse jury - and you can explain why you thought it was OK to come to Philly and steal our votes,” Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner told CNN.

"Wannabe fascists stay home, and if your idea of how to have a democratic election is to steal it, then I’ve got something for you," Krasner, a Democrat, added.

Poll watchers, as the name suggests, are people keeping an eye out for fraud and are usually a normal aspect of US elections. Usually, they are appointed by campaigns or campaign groups, and their names reported to officials ahead of time to be properly designated.

This year, a row over the role has come up after Trump told his supporters to go to the polls and watch out for "voting fraud". The president has also repeatedly suggested he will only lose his re-election bid if there is widespread fraud.

Democrats have responded by accusing Trump and his followers of trying to intimidate voters.

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Early voters in Philadelphia

Voters' views: 'Being surrounded with such patriotism is an honour'

Taylor Golden

Members of our voter panel have been sharing their voting experiences with us.

Taylor Golden, 35, is a small business owner from Houston, Texas. She was not very interested in politics until Trump came along. She has already cast an early vote for the president.

To show her enthusiasm for his re-election, she joined a Trump boat parade in Galveston, Texas.

It was “a cold and dreary day, and the water was incredibly choppy,” but hundreds of boats joined.

“Everyone was in high spirits and you could feel the love and pride in the air,” she said. “Being surrounded with such patriotism is an honour."

WATCH: Why actor Noah Centineo is voting for the first time

Actor Noah Centineo is voting for the first time this year in a US election.

The 24-year-old's organisation Favored Nations has also created a pop-up venue in Los Angeles, to encourage Gen Z and millennials to vote.

More young people are expected to vote in the 2020 race than in previous elections. Historically, the US youth turn-out has been low compared to other age groups.

Centineo told BBC World News America he hadn’t voted before “out of protest”.

But now, he says, things have changed:

US election: Why Noah Centineo is voting for the first time

Trump to host rally in Biden's hometown on Monday

The Trump campaign has announced plans to host a rally on Election Day-eve in Biden's hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Also of note on his Monday agenda is a visit to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where massive protests took place earlier this summer after the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man. It's also where a white teenager allegedly shot and killed two protesters.

Trump is rounding out the 2020 season with a final rally in the same city he held his last rally in 2016: Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Here's what the president's schedule on Monday is looking like:

• Fayetteville, North Carolina
• Scranton, Pennsylvania
• Traverse City, Michigan
• Kenosha, Wisconsin
• Grand Rapids, Michigan

Your Questions Answered: How can the electoral college override the popular vote?

Ritu Prasad

BBC News writer, Florida

BBC

We've been asking our readers for their most pressing questions about the US election. Now it's our turn to respond.

Macnos Mutano, 32, from Sydney, Australia asks: Why can the electoral college override the popular vote?

We've received thousands of questions from all of you, and the most common query is about the electoral college. This controversial part of the US election system is a source of confusion here too.

When voters go to the polls, they aren't directly voting for the candidates. They're voting for "electors" - people who represent their candidate's party.

The number of electors each state gets depends on how many lawmakers it has in Congress - and remember, House of Representatives seats are population-based, while every state gets two Senators.

California has 55 electoral college votes whereas Wyoming only has three, and it all adds up to a total of 538 electors. So, in this system, not all states are created equal.

It is getting the 270 electoral college votes that is needed to win the White House, not the popular vote, giving rise to presidents who may not be the most popular.

Watch this handy video to understand how the electoral college works.

And click here if you want to know more about this project or send in a question of your own.