Rival candidates race to the tape as election heads to photo finish

More states are functionally tied in polls at this point than in any comparable election

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mobility, of an inescapable sense of declining status in a country where others are getting ahead. Despite the Harris campaign's best efforts to shore up her appeal with this group, wooing them is likely to be an uphill task that cannot be accomplished in a matter of days or weeks. The same New York Times/Siena College poll found that 64 per cent of non-college-educated white voters planned to vote for Trump, and just 34 per cent for Ms Harris.

Today, the college-educated and non-college-educated seem to inhabit different worlds. "Bidenomics", a term employed by the outgoing administration as a sign of technocratic competence in economic policymaking, has been weaponised by Trump as a shorthand for inflation and being out of touch.

Other issues apart from the economy might prove more powerful in motivating turnout in a polarised electorate. Associate Professor of political science Huang Chin-Hao, who is also co-chair of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy's International Affairs Programme, says: "We have seen how this election has been about what people cannot stand for.

"This might turn out to be a gendered election. One cannot discount the hold abortion has for women voters when the DETROIT - With less than 48 hours before Election Day in a historically close campaign, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris targeted the Rust Belt while the Republicans' Donald Trump headed to the biggest US swing states on Nov 3 in a frantic last push.

Some 75 million people have cast early ballots ahead of the climax on Nov 5, and the race is down to the wire - with more states functionally tied in polls at this point than in any comparable election.