Harris and Trump travel to the battleground states two days before the election

In a bid to persuade the few remaining undecided voters and rally their supporters to the polls, US Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump traveled to politically battleground states on Sunday, two days before Tuesday's national elections for a new term in office White House from January.

Harris, the Democratic candidate, traveled to Michigan in the Upper Midwest, one of seven states where polls show the contest is extremely close and the outcome uncertain. Political calculations show that any candidate who captures four or more of the seven contested states is likely to become the country's 47th president.

Trump, the Republican nominee seeking to become only the second president to serve two non-consecutive terms, traveled to three other battleground states and held rallies in smaller towns where he hopes to secure high vote counts in rural areas to meet Harris' expected vote high number of votes to compensate for margins in democratically dominated cities.

Trump began his day in Lititz, Pennsylvania, before heading to Kinston, North Carolina, in the afternoon and ending with an evening rally in Macon, Georgia.

It was the first day since last Tuesday that the two candidates had not campaigned in the same state. The focus on the battleground states is so pronounced that on Saturday their planes shared a stretch of tarmac in Charlotte, North Carolina, where both candidates were holding rallies.

Harris attended a black church service in Detroit, the center of the U.S. auto industry in Michigan, before stops in Livernois and Pontiac and a rally at Michigan State University in East Lansing in the evening.

According to the University of Florida's Election Lab, more than 76 million people have already voted early by mail or at polling stations, and early voting takes place across much of the U.S. on Sundays and Mondays. The total is nearly half of the 158 million who voted by Election Day 2020.

Both Trump and Harris sought in the final days of the campaign to portray the other as unfit to lead the country for the next four years.

On his Truth social media platform, Trump told voters: “Every problem we face can be solved – but now the fate of our nation is in your hands.” On Tuesday, you have to stand up and tell Kamala that you've had enough and can't take it anymore: “Kamala Harris, you're fired!”

At her rallies, Harris has tried to convince voters that she will lower the cost of living, which polls show is the top concern across the country. She has also called Trump dangerous and unpredictable and urged Americans to move away from Trump's chaotic political approach.

“We have an opportunity in this election to reverse a decade in which Donald Trump sought to divide us and make us fear each other. We’re done with that,” she said Saturday in Charlotte.

Trump has claimed that Harris, who served as acting vice president for nearly four years, should be held accountable for rising consumer prices and the tens of thousands of migrants crossing the Mexican border into the United States in recent years. He has portrayed migrants as a resulting political threat to the country and their presence as financially damaging to state and local governments across the United States

“The only free help they're going to get is a free ride home,” he said at a rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Saturday.

Harris made a surprise cameo appearance on NBC's comedy sketch show “Saturday Night Live” where she met actress Maya Rudolph, her doppelganger in the series.

Rudolph told Harris at the end of the skit, “I’ll vote for us.”

“Great. Is there any chance you're registered in Pennsylvania?” Harris asked, reflecting on the big eastern state's importance to the national outcome.

“No, I’m not,” said Rudolph.

“Well, it was worth a try,” Harris replied before the two delivered the show’s signature. “Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!”

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung downplayed Harris's appearance on the show, saying, “Kamala Harris has nothing of substance to offer the American people, so she lives out her distorted fantasy, playing with her elite friends on Saturday Night Leftists while campaigning.” continues to decline.” Trump hosted the show during his first presidential run in 2015.

Last-minute polls show the Harris-Trump race is nearly undecided in battleground states, within the margin of statistical error.

ABC News polls show Trump winning five of the seven battleground states, but The Washington Post says Harris is ahead by four points in total polls. The New York Times says Trump is ahead by four points, Harris is ahead by two points and the Pennsylvania race is undecided.

The importance of battleground states cannot be overstated.

US presidential elections are decided not by the national popular vote but by the Electoral College, which transforms the election into 50 state-by-state contests, with 48 states awarding all of their electoral votes to the winner in those states. Nebraska and Maine allocate their votes according to both statewide and congressional district vote counts.

The number of electoral votes in each state is based on population, so the largest states have the greatest impact on the overall national outcome. The winner needs 270 of the 538 electoral votes to clinch the presidency.

Polls show either Harris or Trump with significant or comfortable leads in 43 states, enough to reach 200 electoral votes or more each. Unless there is an upset in one of those states, the winner will be determined in the seven remaining battleground states where both Harris and Trump have held frequent rallies and all but ignored the rest of the country due to campaign stops.

The polls in the seven states are slightly within the statistical margins of error, so the result is in doubt in all seven states.