US Poll Rivals Race to Photo Finish

Detroit: Kamala Harris and Donald Trump began a frantic last push across US swing states Sunday, with less than 48 hours of campaigning left to secure a decisive edge in a bitterly fought and historically close presidential election.

Over 78 million people have cast early ballots ahead of Tuesday’s climax and the race is down to the wire — with more states functionally tied in polls at this point than in any comparable election.

The closeness of the race is all the more remarkable given its dramatic twists — including an assassination bid and Harris’s stunning late entrance — and the fact that the candidates could hardly be further apart in their campaign styles and visions for the future.

A final New York Times/Siena poll on Sunday flagged some incremental changes in the key battleground states, but the results from all seven remained firmly within the margin of error.

Harris — desperate to shore up the Great Lakes states seen as essential to any Democratic ticket —was to spend the day in Michigan, beginning in Detroit before a stop in Pontiac and an evening rally at the Michigan State University.

Trump’s on Sunday timetable centres on Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia, the three biggest prizes in the “Electoral College” system that awards states influence according to their population.

The 78-year-old has been scrambling to distract from the now week-long scandal around his rally at New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden in which warm-up speakers alienated Hispanics and women with racist and sexist language.

Trump surrogates winced at the unforced error, which looked especially unprofessional when contrasted with Harris’s address to a massive, jubilant crowd in Washington, with the White House providing the backdrop.

None of Trump’s Sunday events take place in areas with large Hispanic populations but Pennsylvania is the swing state with the most Puerto Ricans, a community particularly angered by the bigotry at Trump’s rally.