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A presidential election campaign like no other in history came to an anxious end yesterday as Donald Trump and Kamala Harris scrambled to gain an edge in a contest that both sides are portraying as an existential moment for America.

With voters split down the middle, a handful of voters in seven battleground states are expected to decide the outcome. The winner may not be known for days.

“It’s ours to lose,” Trump told a crowd of supporters in Raleigh, North Carolina. “If we get everyone to vote, there’s nothing they can do.”

Harris, meanwhile, tried to convince voters in Pennsylvania, the most crucial swing state.

More than 78 million voters have already cast their votes early, with turnout likely to set a new record.

Opinion polls put the candidates neck and neck despite an extraordinary campaign that saw the 78-year-old Trump survive two assassination attempts, weeks after a jury in New York City named him the first former president to be convicted of a crime. Vice President Harris, 60, was catapulted to the top of the Democratic ticket in July — giving her the chance to become the first woman to hold the job — after President Joe Biden, 81, stepped aside under pressure from his own party .

The latest average of national polls, compiled by FiveThirtyEight, shows Harris with a one-point lead over Trump, well within the margin of error.

“The point is now on us, folks,” Harris’ running mate Tim Walz said at a rally in Wisconsin. “I know there is a lot of anxiety, but the decisions made over the next 24 to 36 hours as polls close will determine not only the next four years, but generations to come.”

Only seven of the fifty states are competitive in this election, as the rest are comfortably Democratic or Republican according to polls; they are Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Pennsylvania is the biggest prize, offering 19 of the 270 Electoral College votes a candidate needs to become president.

Nonpartisan analysts believe Harris needs to win about 45 electoral votes, on top of the blue states she is widely expected to win, while Trump would need about 51.

If Harris loses Pennsylvania, she would have to carry North Carolina or Georgia — states that have voted Democratic only three times in the past four decades — to have any chance of prevailing.

However, if Trump loses Pennsylvania, he would have to win Wisconsin or Michigan, which have voted for a Republican only once since the 1980s.

Forty-eight states award their electoral votes based on the winner, but two states, Nebraska and Maine, allocate one electoral vote to the winner in each congressional district. In 2020, Biden won one of Nebraska’s five votes, while Trump received one of Maine’s four votes. The single electoral vote in Nebraska’s second congressional district, centered on Omaha, is seen as competitive, although independent analysts predict Harris will win it. Both parties have spent millions of dollars on campaign advertising in Omaha.

That one vote could be crucial: If Harris wins Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin while Trump takes the other four battlegrounds, Nebraska’s second district would determine whether the election ends in a tie or whether Harris gains the upper hand.

Trump and his allies, who falsely claim his 2020 defeat was the result of fraud, have spent months laying the groundwork to challenge the outcome again if he loses. He has promised “retaliation” if elected, spoken of prosecuting his political rivals and described Democrats as the “enemy within.”

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report