US election 2024 updates: Trump, Harris make last push as campaigning ends .

To know how Biden’s Indigenous boarding school apology could impact the Native vote, check out our story here.

Or if you want to know what people in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Lebanon think about the US election, read our story here.
Trump, Harris end their campaigns before Election Day

Trump and Harris have delivered their closing arguments in Michigan and Pennsylvania respectively, a day before Election Day.

Here’s what you need to know:
Trump held his rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he also closed his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. He predicted a large victory, following a tirade of false claims about widespread voter fraud.
The Republican nominee suggested that he survived an assassination attempt earlier this year because God had a plan to make him president again.
He once again made an effort to win over Muslim and Arab voters in Michigan dissatisfied with Harris’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza.
Harris was in Pennsylvania, a swing state crucial to Democrats, to address supporters at the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
She outlined how she plans to “build an economy where we bring down the cost of living” and promised to make housing and childcare more affordable.
The Democratic nominee cautioned her supporters not to be complacent. “This could be one of the closest races in history – every single vote matters,” she said.
The latest opinion polls suggest the two candidates are locked in a tight race. Harris is slightly ahead with 48.1 percent of the vote, according to FiveThirtyEight’s national poll tracker. Trump is not far behind, with 46.8.

Houthi
Trump closes last rally of his campaign

Following remarks from his children Don Jr, Eric, and Tiffany, Trump closed out his final event of the 2024 election with promises to boost economic growth and attacks on immigrants and his political rivals.

“They put America last, we put America first,” he said.

“The silent majority is back and tomorrow you need to get out and vote,” he added, attacking his rivals as “the most sinister and corrupt forces on Earth”.
Trump’s sons on stage
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump points to Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr, as he speaks at a campaign rally at Van Andel Arena, on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, in Grand Rapids, Michigan [Evan Vucci/AP Photo]
Why are Pennsylvania and Michigan critical in this election?

Both are swing states expected to play a critical role in this election. Swing states refer to states that are narrowly contested in presidential races.

Each of the 50 states is apportioned a certain number of Electoral College votes, in proportion to their population size. A presidential candidate must secure 270 electors to win.

This year, the states being closely watched are Michigan, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Nevada and North Carolina.

Among those, Pennsylvania has the highest 19 Electoral College votes. Trump’s 2016 victory over Democrat Hillary Clinton was the first time a Republican candidate won Pennsylvania since 1988.

Michigan has 15 Electoral College votes, where Trump won over Clinton, marking the first time a Republican candidate won Michigan since 1992.
‘Too big to rig’: What is Trump’s slogan about?

Trump has been increasingly using the slogan “Too big to rig” in the lead-up to Election Day, and his son Don Jr used the term again in remarks at Trump’s final rally of the campaign tonight.

But what does it mean? Basically, Trump is urging his supporters to vote for him in numbers large enough to “guarantee we win by more than the margin of fraud”.

The Republican continues to falsely say the 2020 election that he lost to Democrat Joe Biden was marred by widespread fraud. In the 2024 campaign also, he has falsely accused Democrats of trying to rig the vote.

Experts say widespread voter fraud in the US is “simply a myth”, and they have warned that Trump appears poised to try to subvert the November results just as he did in 2020.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump stands on stage after speaking at a campaign event at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Ed Fry Arena, Monday, Sept. 23
Trump on stage after speaking at a campaign event at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania [File: Alex Brandon/AP Photo]
Trump again touts support from Muslim community

Once again noting his efforts to win over Muslim and Arab voters in Michigan dissatisfied with Harris’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza, Trump said that supporters from those communities may help play a role in his victory in Michigan.

“Hundreds of thousands of people, that could be very big. Because the Democrats are not happy about this. This was supposed to be their vote, and they’re not at all happy,” he said.
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Van Andel Arena, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024, in Grand Rapids, Mich
Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Van Andel Arena, on Tuesday, in Grand Rapids, Michigan [Paul Sancya/AP Photo]
Research contradicts Trump’s claim that migrants fuel crime

Trump has again linked immigration to a high crime rate, but the data doesn’t back that up.

Research at Stanford University in California last year showed that “immigrants are 30 percent less likely to be incarcerated than are US-born individuals who are white”. They also were 60 percent less likely to be imprisoned than the overall US-born population.

The American Immigration Council also compared crime and demographic data from 1980 to 2022 and found that as the immigrant share of the US population grew, the crime rate dropped.

Despite Republican claims that a “migrant invasion” has been under way at the US-Mexico border under the Biden administration, arrivals have dropped.

In September, the last month for which data is available, US Border Patrol recorded about 53,900 “encounters” between ports of entry at the southwest border. That’s 7 percent fewer than a month earlier and a 75 percent drop from September 2023.
An aerial view of the US-Mexico border
The border between the United States and Mexico, at right, cuts through the Sonoran Desert at the base of the Baboquivari Mountains [File:Giovanna Dell’Orto/AP Photo]
Why does it take so long to declare a winner?

As Trump repeats false claims of elections being rigged against him and questions why election results aren’t available on the night of voting, here is some information about how election results are announced.

The process of “calling” winners and losers in each state is not necessarily based on exact vote tallies, but on projections made by analysts who look at polling and how vote counts are shaping up in key precincts or counties.

If a candidate is expected to win a certain state from the get-go, that can be projected as soon as polls close or shortly after that.

If it is a closely contested state or it is not obvious who the winner is at a state’s poll closing time, then projections of winners will be delayed as analysts watch the vote tallies come in.

If the count is close – or if there are any vote-counting problems – this can slow down the timing of a projection.
A woman writes on a board showing vote tallies during the 2024 U.S. presidential election on Election Day in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, U.S., November 5
A woman writes on a board showing vote tallies during the 2024 U.S. presidential election on Election Day in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, U.S., Tuesday [Reba Saldanha/Reuters]

Sign up for Al Jazeera
Americas Coverage Newsletter

US politics, Canada’s multiculturalism, South America’s geopolitical rise—we bring you the stories that matter.
New Hampshire hamlet tied in first US Election Day votes

Voters in the US hamlet of Dixville Notch launched Election Day with a tied vote, mirroring the incredibly close national polls in the White House race.

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump each got three ballots in the tiny community in the northeastern state of New Hampshire which for decades has kicked off Election Day at the stroke of midnight on Monday, hours before the rest of the country’s polling stations open.

Electoral laws in New Hampshire allow municipalities with fewer than 100 residents to open their polling stations at midnight and to close them when all registered voters have fulfilled their civic duty.

Dixville Notch’s residents voted unanimously for then-candidate Joe Biden in 2020, reportedly only the second presidential hopeful to get all the votes since the midnight voting tradition began in 1960.
Town Moderator Tom Tillotson, left, accepts the first ballot from Les Otten during the midnight vote on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 5
Town Moderator Tom Tillotson, left, accepts the first ballot from Les Otten during the midnight vote on Election Day, Tuesday,in Dixville Notch [Charles Krupa/AP Photo]
Trump says God may have saved him ‘to save America’

Trump has suggested that he survived an assassination attempt earlier this year because God had a plan to make him president again.

“Just a few months ago, in a beautiful field in Pennsylvania, an assassin tried to stop our great movement, the greatest movement in history,” he said.

“But that brush with death did not stop us, by any means. It only made us more determined to finish the job that we had only just started. That was not a pleasant day, I will tell you, that was not a pleasant day. But many people say that God saved me in order to save America.”
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, July 13, 2024, in Butler, Pa
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump is surrounded by U.S. Secret Service agents at a campaign rally, July 13, in Butler, Pennsylvania