Miami, Oct 20 (IANS): Florida, a key battleground US state, broke its record for in-person early voting for the November 3 presidential election, with at least 350,000 people casting their ballots.

Voting by mail, which started earlier this month, racked up more than 2.5 million ballots headed into Monday, more than double the 1.2 million during the same timeframe in 2016, reports Politico news.

In the 2016 presidential election, Trump won Florida, a major swing state, by 49.02 per cent of the votes, while his then Democratic rival Hillary Clinton came in close with 47.82 per cent of the ballots.

According to the latest RealClear Politics polling average, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was currently leading Trump in Florida by 1.4 percentage points or 48.2 per cent to 46.8 per cent.

On Monday, the more than 350,000 voters surpassed 2016 numbers when 291,000 people voted on the first day of in-person early voting, which includes 52 of Florida's 67 counties.

Democrats have a significant pre-Election Day lead, built by a more than 450,000 vote-by-mail lead, through Monday.

Amid the voting, Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris held in-person rallies in Orlando and Jacksonville.

"Today I had to come here on kickoff of early voting in Florida, because y'all are going to make it happen," Harris told an audience in Orlando.

"What you will do here in Florida by early voting is you will be the first to put our country back on the right track."

More than 22 million ballots have already been cast this year, according to CNN.

In the wake of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, more Americans are choosing to vote by mail than ever before, The Hill news website reported.

Alabama reported breaking its absentee voting record, and Georgia also set a record on its first day of early voting.

Colorado also said it set a "bonkers" 2,400 per cent increase in early voting.