WASHINGTON, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday held five rallies in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, in a bid to boost support in key battleground states on the final day of campaigning.
At a rally in Traverse City, Michigan, Trump recalled the victory in 2016 and expressed confidence for another win. "I think we're going to duplicate," the president said. "I don't know if you ever surpass something like that, but we're going to at least duplicate it."
Speaking to reporters after arriving at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Republican incumbent touted supporters' enthusiasm while mocking Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's small drive-in events.
"Look, I watched Joe Biden go out ... nobody shows up to see him. He's got the circles. He can't fill up the circles. And then we have forty and fifty thousand people," Trump said.
The president continued his criticism of a recent Supreme Court rule that allows Pennsylvania election officials to accept mail-in ballots arriving three days after election day, as long as they are postmarked by Nov. 3, which is considered a win for Democrats.
"I think the Pennsylvania decision by the Supreme Court is a very dangerous decision," Trump told reporters. "It allows cheating. It allows cheating at a very high level, and very easy cheating," he said, without providing any evidence for the accusation.
For his last campaign stop before polls open on Election Day, Trump took the stage around midnight in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which is also where he concluded his 2016 campaign.
Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in all four states in 2016, winning Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, the Democrats' "blue wall," by less than 1 percentage point.
But according to the latest RealClearPolitics battlegrounds polling average, Biden is ahead of Trump by 6.7 percentage points, 5.1 points and 2.6 points in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania respectively. In North Carolina, however, Trump leads by 0.2 percentage point.
In a series of tweets on Monday, Trump lashed out at Biden for his "energy ban" and globalist trade approach, arguing that "a vote for Biden is a vote for Lockdowns, Layoffs and Misery."
"Sleepy Joe Biden has vowed to ABOLISH the American oil and natural gas industries, and BAN fracking," Trump said, though the Democratic challenger has repeatedly denied he would ban fracking.
Biden on Monday visited Ohio and Pennsylvania, criticizing Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, economy and other issues, and attempting to shore up support from Rust Belt voters.
"Tomorrow we can put an end to a presidency that has divided this nation ... And my message to you is simple: The power to change this country is in your hands," Biden spoke to a drive-in crowd in Cleveland, Ohio, a critical battleground state that the Democratic Party lost four years ago.
Voters have cast more than 98 million ballots in the United States ahead of Election Day, according to the latest tally from the U.S. Elections Project. That figure, including more than 35 million in-person votes and nearly 63 million returned mail-in ballots, represents more than 71 percent of the total votes counted in the 2016 general elections, the data show.
As some states don't allow processing mail-in ballots until Election Day, such as Pennsylvania, analysts have cautioned that the winner of the presidential election may still be unknown when election night is over.
