Trump and Harris in final push to sway voters

WASHINGTON — Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will make a final push to break their bitter deadlock as they head into the last week of the most dramatic and divisive White House race in modern times.

Despite a series of historic upheavals in a US election like no other, polls show the Democratic vice president and Republican former president remain neck-and-neck in the polls as Election Day on Nov 5 looms.

Both will pull out all the stops to sway voters, with Harris, 60, giving her closing pitch on Tuesday at the same spot where Trump rallied supporters to protest his election 2020 loss before the deadly Jan 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol.

Trump, 78, is also relying on spectacle, and he gave a barnstorming rally at the famed Madison Square Garden arena in his home city of New York on Sunday night to kick off his final effort.

At the heart of the race are the seven most hotly contested swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Wisconsin and — most crucially — Pennsylvania.

The tightest US presidential election in decades will hinge on who can win over the few remaining undecided voters — and who can get their base out to vote.

Polls also predict a historic gender gap between the candidates, as well as deep fault lines on race and age.

Concerns over violence

Meanwhile, US voters are approaching the presidential election with deep unease about what could follow, including the potential for political violence, attempts to overturn the election results and its broader implications for democracy, according to a new poll.

The findings of the survey, conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, highlight persistent concerns about the fragility in the US.

About 4 in 10 registered voters say they are "extremely" or "very" concerned about violent attempts to overturn the results after the November election. A similar share is worried about legal efforts to do so. And about 1 in 3 voters say they are "extremely" or "very" concerned about attempts by local or state election officials to stop the results from being finalized.

Trump's wide-ranging attempts to reject the will of the voters and remain in power after his 2020 loss have led to concerns that he will again fail to concede should he lose to Harris.

Nearly 9 in 10 voters said the loser of the presidential election is obligated to concede once every state has finished counting its votes and legal challenges are resolved, including about 8 in 10 Republicans. But only about one-third of voters expect Trump to accept the results and concede if he loses.

Agencies via Xinhua