PITTSBURGH: Election Day polling stations opened Tuesday on the US east coast, kicking off the last opportunity for American voters to vote in the intensely fought, tightly contested 2024 presidential race.
Over 82 million people have already taken advantage of early voting to cast their ballots for Trump or Harris.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump held battling rallies Monday in the last hours before Election Day, when the US citizens will either elect the first woman president in US history or deliver the Republican an unparalleled comeback, AFP reported.
Vice President Kamala Harris has concluded her election campaign with appeal to young voters. According to BBC, she has just delivered her last speech of the campaign in Philadelphia.
Harris concluded her weeks-long run of appearances by reflecting on a drive she says “brought together people from all corners of the US, and all walks of life”.
The vice president went on: “Ours is not a fight against nothing, but for something… Tonight we end as we initiated: with optimism, energy, joy.”
She also made a familiar appeal to young voters, saying. “To you in particular I say I see your power and I am so proud of you.”
BBC reported that Harris knows she will need young voters to back her in big numbers if she is to win elections.
With polls suggesting a dead heat, the candidates have offered up harshly different visions as they spent their final day of campaigning in the too-close-to-call swing states that are set to tip the balance following polls close Tuesday.
Both opponents even held loud events at the same time in Pittsburgh, a major city in the must-win battlefield of Pennsylvania, as the historical race went down to the wire.
“Tuesday is election day, and the momentum is on our side,” Kamala Harris stated, just before singer Katy Perry took to the center stage.
Donald Trump, who brought his family members up on the main stage in the city, stuck to his darker rhetoric, adding Kamala Harris was “a disaster.”
“We do not have to settle for incompetence, weakness, decay and decline. With your vote on Tuesday, we can fix every single issue our nation faces,” Trump stated.
The former President held rallies in North Carolina and Pennsylvania ahead of a major finale in Grand Rapids, Michigan — the same area where he had closed his 2016 and 2020 election campaigns.
Harris also went all-in on Pennsylvania, building up to an election rally on the Philadelphia Museum of Art steps made famous in the movie “Rocky.
Both candidates say they are encouraged by early turnout, with over 82 million people having cast ballots ahead of Election Day.
Celebrities and US Elections
Mega star Taylor Swift, one of a series of celebrity endorsements for Kamala Harris, posted to her 283 million followers an “extremely significant reminder” that Tuesday is the last chance to vote.
Joe Rogan, the prominent host also announced on Monday that he was endorsing Donald Trump, days following the ex-president appeared on his show.
Both candidates expressed hope their clashing messages will boost turnout among their followers and supporters and win over any remaining potential voters.
Speaking earlier in Pennsylvania, Donald Trump also pursued his apocalyptic vision of a US in decline and overwhelmed by unlawful immigrants, whom he described as “”animals and savages”.
Harris also hit home her opposition to Trump-backed abortion bans across the country — one of her key vote-winning positions but took cheerful, safe note.
READ ALSO : Trump, Harris Teams Brace for Legal Battles if No Clear Winner on Election Night
With Trump, being the oldest major political party nominee ever to run for US president office, Harris played on the need for change.
“Americans are ready for a fresh start,” she said in Pittsburgh. “It is time for a new generation of leadership in the country.”
High Tension and US Elections
The former President has pressed home on voter concerns regarding the economy and unlawful migration while his harsh rhetoric is juice to his right-wing supporters. Trump’s message struck home for first-time voter Ethan Wells, a 19-year-old cook in Michigan.
President Biden “let a lot of illegals in, and they have been murdering our own people,” he told AFP. “When Donald Trump was president, no person messed with America.”
Harris, faced enormous challenges and issues on being catapulted into the race only in July following Joe Biden abruptly dropped out.
However, vice president Harris has galvanized the Democratic Party and stirred excitement among young voters as well as women following nearly a decade of political headlines dominated by Donald Trump.
“It is kind of mind-boggling that the race is too close, as he’s a convicted felon, the way he talks to women… the tariffs, everything”, said Trish Kilby, at Harris’s Philadelphia election rally. ” Harris is more regarding bringing the people together, whereas all he cares regarding is his top one percent.”
The entire world is anxiously watching as the results will have major implications for conflicts in the Middle East and Moscow’s war in Kyiv, and for tackling issue of climate change, which Trump calls a hoax.
AFP reported that the most immediate fear is that American democracy will buckle if Trump loses but declines to accept defeat like he did four years ago, when his supporters attacked the US Capitol.
With Donald Trump having narrowly survived an assassination attempt in July and police officials foiling a second plot, the fears of violence are actual, according to AFP.
In Washington, increasing numbers of businesses and office compounds are being boarded up in case of political unrest.
