US presidential elections 2024: Kamala Harris and Donald Trump urge “vote early” as endgame polls put candidates in dead heat

Just 10 days ahead of Election Day in the United States of America, candidates Kamala Harris (Democratic Party) and Donald Trump (Republican Party) both urged the public to “vote early”, as final-stage polls showed them locked in a dead heat in most swing states.

Election Day is on November 5, 2024, but early voting has already begun “in states across the country where voters are able to cast their ballots either in person or via mail”, said NBC News.

Meanwhile, the final nationwide CNN poll found that 47 per cent of likely voters support Kamala Harris, current vice-president, and an equal 47 per cent would vote for Donald Trump, former president, in the elections.

In the final New York Times/Siena College national poll from October 20 to 23, the two aspirants are tied at 48 per cent each. The remaining 4 per cent are yet to decide on their preference.

A separate poll conducted by the Financial Times and the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, showed that 44 per cent of respondents trust Trump to handle the economy, as against 43 per cent for Harris.

An analysis by FiveThirtyEight poll tracker, however, showed that Harris has a slight edge of 1.7 percentage points over Trump.

To win the race for the White House, the successful candidate will have to secure 270 of the 538 electoral votes up for grabs.

The seven key swing states that are seen to be crucial in determining the election results are Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Nevada.

With almost all surveys throwing up a very tight race, both Trump and Harris have stepped up their efforts to garner more popular votes in the last stretches of their campaign trails.

In the last rounds of rallies, Harris has been focusing on reproductive rights to woo the women voters, while Trump has been highlighting his anti-migration views.

The vice-president held a rally in Houston, Texas, on Friday, where she focused on why reproductive rights of women were very fundamental. She was joined at the rally by music icon Beyonce.

In her speech at the rally, Beyonce said that she was not there as a celebrity or a politician, but as a “mother”.

“I am here as a mother who cares deeply about the world my children and all of our children live in, a world where we have the freedom to control our bodies,” she said, solidly giving her support to the Democratic candidate’s focus on reproductive rights for women, rights that have been put in jeopardy by the Republican camp.

On June 24, 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade, “the landmark piece of legislation that made access to an abortion a federal right in the United States”, said the American University, Washington DC. “The decision dismantled 50 years of legal protection and paved the way for individual states to curtail or outright ban abortion rights.”

On May 17, 2023, Trump claimed credit for the Supreme Court ruling, as the US Supreme Court judges selected by him, during his term as president, were instrumental in overturning the legislation. “After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade, much to the ‘shock’ of everyone,” wrote Trump on his social media page.

The Republican act of stripping away a woman’s right over her own body has been highlighted time and again in the Democratic campaign, with voters being urged to choose “freedom”.

At the campaign rally in Texas on Friday, Beyonce said to rapturous applause, “Your freedom is a God-given right, your human right.” The singer urged Americans to “sing a new song” and support Kamala Harris in these elections.

There are strict abortion bans in Texas and 13 other US states. The Democratic nominee has been pressing for a removal of the ban, saying that women must have reproductive rights.

In the closing rounds of his campaign, Trump has been highlighting his anti-migration views. “We are like a garbage can for the rest of the world to dump the people that they don’t want,” Trump said on Friday in Austin, Texas.

Kamala Harris was quick to pounce, and posted on X: “Donald Trump calls our country a garbage can. I think being an American is one of the greatest privileges on Earth.”

—With inputs from CtoI News Desk