US Election 2020: Biden, Trump spend final 24 hours on the campaign trail

US President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden spent the last hours of the presidential race delivering their closing arguments to voters in critical states.  

 Biden campaigned in Pennsylvania and Ohio, as Trump toured Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

National polls suggest a firm lead for Biden in Tuesday's election, but his lead is narrower in the handful of states that could decide the result.

Almost 99 million people have already cast their ballots in early voting, putting the country on course for its highest turnout in a century.

In the US election, voters decide state-level contests rather than an overall single national one.

In order to be elected president, a candidate must win at least 270 votes in what is called the electoral college. Each US state gets a certain number of votes partly based on its population and there are a total of 538 up for grabs.

This is the reason a possible candidate can win the most votes nationally, as Hillary Clinton did back in 2016, however, still lose the election.

The US election is taking place during the middle of a pandemic. The US had recorded more cases and more deaths than any other country worldwide. So far there have been 9.5 million COVID-19 cases in the US, with 236,997 deaths.