Clinton and Trump chase last-minute support on US election eve

The US presidential campaign ended on Monday as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump spent the last hours of a bitter election focused on the country’s deep economic divide.

Democrats gained a late confidence boost as a final series of national opinion polls confirmed a small but steady lead for Clinton. Early voting numbers point already to record turnout among Latino voters, stirred into action by Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric, the Guardian reported.

However, a state-level polling suggested several possible paths to victory also remain for Trump. He reportedly hopes to galvanise white working-class anger over jobs and trade in the traditionally Democratic manufacturing regions, though also needs an almost clean sweep of battleground states including Florida and North Carolina to win outright.

All in all, polls give Clinton a four-point lead over Trump.

Clinton and Trump both spent the day criss-crossing America in a final push for votes before election day, holding rallies in the battleground states of North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Michigan.

The Clinton campaign poured last-minute resources into the industrial midwest, a region where she struggled against a similar anti-establishment surge for Bernie Sanders during the primary election season.

Both Clinton and current US President Barack Obama held afternoon rallies in Michigan before planning to finish the night on stage together in Philadelphia with Bruce Springsteen.

Trump was also headed to Michigan where he planned to end the night, before returning to New York, where he will vote.

Clinton urged voters to back a "hopeful, inclusive, big-hearted America", telling her audience that they did not "have to accept a dark and divisive vision of America". Trump, on the other hand, told supporters they had a "magnificent chance to beat the corrupt system". "Today the American working class is going to strike back, finally," Trump said, pledging to reverse job losses.

A record number of Americans - more than 46 million - have voted early by post or at polling stations.

The Department of Justice announced on Monday that its Civil Rights Division plans to deploy more than 500 personnel to 67 jurisdictions in 28 states to monitor voting. There is particular concern that changes to voting rules in states such as North Carolina may have deliberately depressed African American turnout.