Donald Trump has told supporters at his presidential campaign’s final rally that the United States is just “hours away from a once-in-a-lifetime change.’’
“Today is our independence day,’’ the Republican candidate said in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a state that has been solidly Democratic for decades.
Report says Trump sees an opportunity among Michigan white working class voters who have been hurt by the decline of the auto industry.
Trump added that his administration would stop the jobs from leaving America and would also stop the jobs from leaving Michigan.
“We are finally going to close the history books on the Clintons, their lives, their schemes, their corruptions,” he said of his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Meanwhile, Clinton and Trump will vote barely more than a mile apart on Tuesday in New York after sparring with each other at campaign rallies.
“Trump will vote at Hilton Hotel in New York, not at Trump Tower and interestingly, Clinton will vote just about a mile apart at the Javits Convention Centre.
“This is the first time it is happening in the recent history that two leading presidential candidates will vote in the city.
“This is one of the things that make this election historic and different,” Jeff Ryer, a Republican Chieftain in the state of Virginia said.
A member of Senate of the state of Virginia, Frank Wagner, said the election night would be an uneasy one for both candidates.
“What you will see is that they will vote and go to war room to monitor what happens in the states as the votes come in,” he said.
Reports say spending election night not only in the same city, but barely more than a mile apart in midtown Manhattan, is creating unprecedented security headaches for New York City.
“For the first time in modern memory, both major party candidates will monitor the results here in New York and will have election night parties in midtown Manhattan,’’ New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill said on Monday.
The last time two presidential candidates were from New York was in 1944 when Franklin Roosevelt won his fourth term, defeating New York Governor, Thomas Dewey, but celebrations were subdued by World War II.
Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, live in the suburb of Chappaqua, where they moved in 1999 so that she could run for U.S. Senate.
Trump, on the other hand, lives in a penthouse condominium atop the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue.
The election night jitters come in the midst of a heightened terrorism alert as a bomb that exploded in the Chelsea neighbourhood in mid-September injured 29 people.
Federal officials have said they have received intelligence warnings of a terrorist threat from the Al Qaeda militant group and Islamic State, which has also called on its supporters to attack election targets.
Police officials said they would have more than 5,000 police officers out on election night, uniformed and plain-clothed, as well as bomb-sniffing dogs, and what they called “long gun trained” special forces.
Up until now, the largest deployment of security in New York City was during Pope Francis’ visit last year, which coincided with the UN General Assembly, attended by President Barak Obama and 170 other world leaders.
Aside from terrorism, the polarising presidential election has elicited strong, occasionally destructive passions.
High-rise buildings in Manhattan bearing the Trump name have been pelted with eggs repeatedly.
In Staten Island, the borough where Trump is most popular, a gigantic sign erected on the lawn of a supporter was set on fire in August.
Besides the competing election night parties, the campaign has generated particular passion and concern.
Huge crowds are expected at Times square, where people often watch election results in much the same way that they gather on New Year’s Eve.
Another key location is the 58-story Trump Tower, which has become the epicentre for protests for and against Trump’s candidacy.
On Sunday, competing crowds tried to drown each other out under the gold marquee of the building as police struggled to keep the sidewalks clear.
Clinton appears to be planning the larger, more lavish party at the sprawling Javits Centre, which occupies a city block along the Hudson River and can accommodate as many as 85,000 people.
Her campaign also received a permit for a fireworks display over the river, but the plan has been called off, according to a police official, who said he did not know the reason.
According to the New York Post, if Clinton wins, there will be an after-party at the Peninsula Hotel, just one block away from Trump Tower.
Heavy security was already in place over the weekend at the Javits Center and television vans with satellite dishes were parked out front.
On Sunday, the scene was quieter in front of the Hilton, where the only evidence of an impending election event was a sign that read “No Parking on Tuesday”.
Tuesday’s historic U.S. elections will open at 6 a.m. (noon Nigerian time) and end at 7 p.m. (1 a.m. Wednesday Nigerian time), the Department of Elections, State of Virginia, said.
Also, Tuesday’s election has been described as a day of history.
Democratic Vice President nominee, Senator Tim Kaine, said this early Tuesday in Richmond, the state of Virginia in the final campaign trail.
“Today, history will be made that you can be president of the United States of America, irrespective of your race or gender. We made history in 2008 when we elected the first ever African-American president. You made it possible.
”That is what today is; today is again a day of history. We need to show what we accept and what we reject as a people,” Kaine said at the midnight rally attended by hundreds of supporters including Governor Terry McAuliffe of Virginia.
He said about 200 million eligible voters were expected to cast their votes out of which about 41 million people had already voted from the absentee voting.
Kaine said he was supporting Clinton in the election as her vice president because women had always supported men in the U.S. elections, adding that more women had always voted than men since 1964.
According to him, Clinton has motivation and vision, giving instances of how she had supported children and families.
He said that Trump had never supported anybody in history, saying he always put himself first.
“I will give it to Trump. He’s got an issue, he’s got a vision but everything is Donald Trump. Every American presidential candidate has put our country first except Donald Trump; he’s put himself first,” he said.
According to him, however, Clinton respect everybody’s right irrespective of race, religion, gender or social status adding, “because that’s what makes us stronger”.
He accused Trump for his statement in 2001 that Obama was not a citizen of the U.S.
“Why will Trump draw us back hundreds of years on an issue that we fought a war? Once you are born in the U.S., you are a citizen, it does not matter your blood.
“He never apologised. He doesn’t respect the military yet he wants to be the commander in-chief. That’s why we must vote Hillary,” he said.
McAuliffe had earlier said that he recently pardoned 206,000 felons and restored their voting rights, adding, “I don’t just want us to win, I want us to win big”.
The governor said he had known Clinton for 36 years and knew her passion for the people and that “she has fought for us, we are going to fight for her today”.
The last batch of national voter surveys on Monday from Bloomberg and Fox News, showed Clinton entering the election day with a small but not insurmountable lead over Trump.
Currently, the states that are “solid” Republican are Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina and South Dakota.
The others are Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming with a total of 157 Electoral College votes while the “lean” Republican states are Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Second Congressional District, Ohio and Utah totaling 47 electoral College votes.
On the other hand, the “solid” Democratic states are California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Minnesota and New Mexico totaling 200 Electoral College votes.
The “lean” Democratic states are Colorado, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin with a total of 68 Electoral College votes.
The battleground states, which have 66 Electoral College votes up for grabs are Arizona, Florida, Nevada, Nebraska Second Congressional District, New Hampshire and North Carolina.
U.S. president is elected by Electoral College made up of 538 electors as against popular vote and to be elected president, a candidate must win 51 per cent electoral vote.
Each of the 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, has a certain amount of Electoral College votes to award a candidate, based on the number of members of Congress it has.
This is roughly in line with each area’s population and the votes are given on a winner-takes-all basis, except in Maine and Nebraska.
In 2008, President Barack Obama won 53 per cent of the vote but this led to 68 per cent of the Electoral College vote.
Meanwhile, voters in a New Hampshire hamlet, Dixville Notch, have kicked off voting in the US presidential election.
Residents of the hamlet cast their votes at midnight. Out of the six votes cast, Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump four votes to two, a result that may foreshadow voting trends hours later in the rest of polling stations across America.
Libertarian Gary Johnson received one vote, and Mitt Romney received a surprise write-in ballot, USA Today reported.
According to New Hampshire law, communities with fewer than 100 voters can open their polls at midnight and close them as soon as all registered voters have cast their ballots.
The best known of these three towns, Dixville Notch has been voting at midnight every election since 1960. Neil Tillotson, the former owner of the Balsams Grant Resort Hotel, which closed in 2011, started midnight voting in Dixville in 1960 to stir up publicity for the resort.
Almost all of the Dixville voters are employees of the resort .
This could be Dixville’s last year in the election spotlight, however.
Les Otten, a New England businessman, bought the Balsams and plans to redevelop it into a massive ski resort. That could bring the population in Dixville over 100 people, thereby ending its midnight voting tradition.
Millsfield, located just over 12 miles down the road from Dixville Notch, is the newest town to get in on the act. Millsfield began midnight voting as early as 1952 (no one seems certain exactly when) and stopped the practice in the 1960s (again, no one seems certain exactly when).
The town was invited to take the tradition back up last year by New Hampshire’s secretary of State, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the New Hampshire primary.
In other results, Clinton also beat Trump in Hart’s Location 17-14, but Trump was the overwhelming favorite in Millsfield, with a 16-4 edge. Overall, in the three tiny towns, Trump won 32 votes, while Clinton got 25.
Libertarian Gary Johnson picked up three votes. Bernie Sanders, John Kasich and 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney got write-in votes.
Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump raced through several battleground states on Monday in a last-ditch attempt to encourage their supporters to show up and vote on Tuesday.
Clinton sought to capture more support from Latinos, African-Americans and young people, while Trump looked to win over disaffected Democrats and rev up a middle class that he said has been sidelined by the political establishment.
Clinton held the biggest rally of her campaign in Philadelphia on Monday night, drawing a crowd that the city’s Fire Department put at 33,000 to hear her and President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and rockers Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi.
“Tomorrow we face the test of our time,” Clinton told supporters, saying they could decide what sort of country they wanted to live in. “We choose to believe in a hopeful, inclusive, big-hearted America.”
Obama, who campaigned earlier in the day for Clinton in Ann Arbor, Michigan, reiterated his charge that Trump is “temperamentally unfit to be commander in chief,” and said Clinton offered an experienced and accomplished alternative.
“You don’t just have to vote against someone, you have someone extraordinary to vote for,” Obama said. “She will work and she will deliver, she won’t just tweet.”
Trump told voters at an evening rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, they had one question facing them at the ballot box on Tuesday.
“Do you want America to be ruled by the corrupt political class or do you want America to be ruled again by the people?” he asked. “Tomorrow the American working class will strike back.”
With only hours left before Election Day, the Clinton campaign was boosted by Sunday’s unexpected announcement by FBI Director James Comey that the agency stood by its July decision not to press any criminal charges in an investigation of Clinton’s email practices while she was Secretary of State.
The Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project gave Clinton a 90 per cent chance of defeating Trump, seeing her on track to win 303 Electoral College votes out of the 270 needed, to Trump’s 235.
With surveys indicating a tight race in Michigan, which Democrats have long counted on winning, both candidates made campaign appearances there.
Pennsylvania, another vote-rich state, was also seen as fertile ground by both camps in the closing hours of their campaigns.
