CLEVELAND, Ohio- As the coronavirus surges, the last day to vote is Tuesday. Nov. 3, a presidential election year where President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will fight it out for the White House, and a challenging year for the country that has broken early voting records, some 96 million Americans voting early so far, either my mail or in person.

The pandemic that has plagued the country since early March continues to break records too, the U.S. breaking a world record Friday for infections with more than 100,000 confirmed cases in a single 24-hour period at 100, 233 cases, a CNN report says.

Ohio, a swing state for presidential elections, has seen some 2.3 million voters vote early, more than usual, and a trend seen in large part across the country.

Blacks voters are fired up too, data show.

Early voting has brought out a record one million voters in Georgia ahead of tomorrow's election, far more than the 286, 240 voters that came out in 2016 when Trump edged then opponent Hillary Clinton to win the presidency.

In Maryland, nearly 200,000 Blacks have already voted, compared to 18, 430 four years ago, California more than tripling its early voter turnout this year with nearly nine million returning ballots by mail alone.

This is in stark contrast to Black voter turnout in 2016, which saw a sharp decrease from 2012 when Barack Obama, the nations' first Black president, won reelection with Biden as his two-term vice president.

A PEW Research report says the Black voter turnout rate that year declined for the first time in 20 years in a presidential election, falling to 59.6% in 2016 from 2012, and after reaching a record-high 66.6% in 2012, a nearly seven percent decrease.

The excitement for Black voters this time around began when Black America saw a chance to rid the White House of the controversial Trump and his anti-female racial rhetoric.

Two Blacks, U.S. Sens. Corey Booker and Kamala Harris, now the vice presidential candidate on the Biden ticket and the first Black woman to compete on a major party presidential ticket in America, were among more than 20 Democratic presidential hopefuls and the only Blacks in the race.

Only one Black, among both Democrats and Republicans, has reached the plateau of a presidential nominee of a major American political party, that being the charismatic Obama, a junior U.S. senator from Illinois when he toppled Republican John McCain to take home the presidency in 2008 in a historic election that rocked America.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.