The United States on the eve of a historic choice

Photo: Kamil Krzaczynski Agence France-Presse A woman casts her ballot during early voting for the U.S. general election at a polling station at Ottawa Hills High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on November 3, 2024.

Charly Triballeau – Agence France-Presse and Sébastien Blanc – Agence France-Presse in Pittsburgh and Washington

Posted at 2:22 PM

• United States

These are the final crucial hours of an incredible campaign for the White House: Kamala Harris and Donald Trump face off on Monday in final campaign meetings, on the eve of a vote with critical stakes for the United States and the rest of the world.

This 2024 American presidential election sees two radically opposed personalities, separated by nearly two decades, pitting themselves against each other.

On one side, the current Democratic vice president, who in July replaced the aging President Joe Biden at short notice. Kamala Harris, 60, could become the first woman to lead the world's leading economic and military power on Tuesday.

On the other, former Republican President Donald Trump, 78, who has made a spectacular political comeback after leaving the White House in 2021 in a chaotic context, having survived two impeachment proceedings and having been convicted in court.

Pockmarked by unimaginable twists and turns, the most prominent of which were two assassination attempts on the septuagenarian, this campaign that is coming to an end has also been marked by all the escalation in a fractured country.

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Seven States, All the Way

Each of the two rivals says it is confident of victory. But in reality, the competition is so tight that only a few tens of thousands of votes could decide the outcome of the election.

The tension is mainly fueled by Donald Trump, who has begun to question the integrity of the voting operations. Kamala Harris' campaign said Monday it “fully expects” the Republican to prematurely declare victory.

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Seeing this as a “sign of weakness and fear of losing,” Ian Sams, the Democrat's spokesman, warned: “This is not going to work.”

The most precious votes are to be won in seven clearly identified swing states, which the two White House contenders have been crisscrossing relentlessly for months, spending hundreds of millions of dollars there.

Of these seven states, the one that offers the most electors is Pennsylvania. The United States, a federal country, has a system of indirect universal suffrage, crowning the candidate who manages to gather a majority of the 538 electors, or at least 270.

It is therefore logically in Pennsylvania that Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are throwing their last forces on Monday.

The vice president, a former prosecutor and then senator from California born to a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, is going to Scranton, Joe Biden's hometown, then to the state's two main cities, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

Oprah and Lady Gaga

For this last stage, she should receive the support of Oprah Winfrey, Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin, after having obtained that of a host of other stars such as Bruce Springsteen, Jennifer Lopez and basketball superstar LeBron James.

Donald Trump held a first meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina. “Tomorrow, it's hard-working patriots like you who are going to save our country,” he said.

He then heads to Reading and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Monday, before ending his marathon day in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

So many places where the former real estate magnate will depict a country drifting apart, invaded by millions of illegal criminal immigrants, economically and morally bankrupt under the influence of “enemies within.”

The Republican has recently toughened his rhetoric, using insulting terms to describe his opponent, who in response portrays him as a “fascist” driven by vengeance and his thirst for “unlimited power.”

Met by AFP in Grand Rapids, Ethan Wells, a 19-year-old restaurant employee, confides his enthusiasm at the prospect of attending Donald Trump’s last rally.

“When Trump was president, no one messed with America,” he justifies.

Nearly 80 million Americans, including Kamala Harris, have already voted early, out of 244 million eligible voters. Her rival is expected to vote in person on Tuesday near his residence in Florida.

The election is generating as much suspense over its outcome, expected possibly during the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, as over the aftermath. Donald Trump has never acknowledged his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, after which his supporters stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Both sides have already filed dozens of lawsuits, while two out of three Americans fear an outbreak of violence in the wake of the election.

At least two states, Washington and Nevada, have mobilized National Guard reservists as a precaution. In Georgia, election workers are equipped with a panic button device to alert authorities in the event of danger.

Elsewhere in the country, some polling stations have planned drone surveillance or snipers on rooftops. In the federal capital Washington, metal barriers are being erected around the White House, the Capitol and other sensitive sites.