By Joseph Ax

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The dizzying presidential contest between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris came to an uncertain end on Tuesday as millions of Americans lined up at polling stations to choose between two very different visions of the country.

A race upended by unprecedented events — two assassination attempts on Trump, President Joe Biden’s surprise withdrawal and Harris’ rapid ascension — remained neck-and-neck, even after billions of dollars in spending and months of frenzied campaigning.

Trump, who frequently spread false claims that he won the 2020 presidential election against Biden and whose supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, voted near his home in Palm Beach, Florida. “If I lose an election, if it’s fair, I’ll be the first to admit it,” Trump told reporters. He did not give details.

More than 80 million Americans had already voted before Tuesday, either by mail or in person, and lines at several polling places on Tuesday were short and orderly.

Some problems with vote counting technology were reported in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, and a local court granted election officials’ request to extend voting hours by two hours Tuesday evening. Two polling places in Fulton County, Georgia, were briefly evacuated after false bomb threats.

In Dearborn, Michigan, Nakita Hogue, 50, was joined by her daughter Niemah Hogue, an 18-year-old student, in voting for Harris. Niemah said she took birth control to help regulate her periods, while her mother recalled needing surgery after a miscarriage in her 20s, and both feared efforts by Republican lawmakers to restrict women’s health care.

“For my daughter, who is going to explore the world and make her own path, I want her to have that choice,” Nakita Hogue said. “She should be able to make her own decisions.”

At a library in Phoenix, Arizona, Felicia Navajo, 34, and her husband Jesse Miranda, 52, arrived with one of their three young children to vote for Trump.

Miranda, a union plumber, immigrated to the United States from Mexico at age four and said he thought Trump would do a better job fighting inflation and controlling immigration.

“I want to see good people come to this city, people willing to work, people willing to just live the American dream,” Miranda said.

Trump’s campaign has suggested he could declare victory on election night even though millions of ballots have yet to be counted, as he did four years ago. The former president has repeatedly said any defeat could only come from widespread fraud, echoing his false claims from 2020. The winner may not be known for several days if the margins in the field states battle are as thin as expected.

No matter who wins, history will be made.

Harris, 60, the first female vice president, would become the first woman, Black and South Asian American to win the presidency. Trump, 78, the only president to be impeached twice and the first former president to be criminally convicted, would also become the first president to win nonconsecutive terms in more than a century.

Opinion polls show the candidates are neck and neck in each of the seven states likely to determine the winner: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll shows Harris leading among women by 12 percentage points and Trump leading among men by seven percentage points.

This contest reflects a deeply polarized nation whose divisions have only deepened during a fiercely competitive race. Trump has resorted to increasingly dark and apocalyptic rhetoric during his election campaign. Harris urged Americans to come together, warning that a second Trump term would threaten the foundations of American democracy.

Control of both houses of Congress is also at stake. Republicans have an easier path in the U.S. Senate, where Democrats are defending several seats in Republican-leaning states, while the House of Representatives looks like a toss-up.

DARK RHETORIC

During the campaign, Trump criticized first Biden and then Harris for their handling of the economy, which polls show is at the top of voters’ concerns despite low unemployment and a slowing economy. ‘inflation. But he showed a characteristic inability to stay on message, at one point questioning Harris’ black identity and vowing to protect women “whether they like it or not.”

Even more so than in 2016 and 2020, Trump has demonized immigrants crossing the border illegally, falsely accusing them of fomenting a wave of violent crime, and he has vowed to use the government to pursue his political rivals.

Polls show he has made gains among black and Latino voters. Trump has often warned that migrants are depriving these districts of jobs.

In contrast, Harris attempted to bring together a broader coalition of liberal Democrats, independents and disaffected moderate Republicans, portraying Trump as too dangerous to be elected.

She campaigned on protecting reproductive rights, an issue that has galvanized women since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 struck down the nation’s right to abortion.

Harris has faced anger from many pro-Palestinian voters over the Biden administration’s military and financial support for Israel’s campaign in Gaza. Although she does not envision a change in U.S. policy, she has said she will do everything possible to end the conflict.

After Biden, 81, withdrew due to concerns about his age and mental capacity, Harris sought to turn the tables on Trump, pointing to his desultory rallies as evidence of his ineptitude, and attempted to court young voters, considered a critical voting bloc.

Trump countered supporters of Harris, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé, by tapping Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who has played an increasingly visible role as a surrogate and a major donor of Trump’s cause.

Tuesday’s vote follows one of the most turbulent semesters in modern American politics.

In May, a New York jury found Trump guilty of falsifying business records to hide secret payments to a porn star. Four weeks later, Trump and Biden met for their only debate, during which the outgoing president delivered a disastrous performance that exacerbated voters’ existing concerns about his mental acuity.

In July, Trump narrowly escaped a would-be assassin’s bullet at a rally in Pennsylvania. Barely a week later, Biden left the race.

(Reporting by Joseph Axe; Additional reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Andrea Shalal in Dearborn, Michigan; Gabriella Borter in Phoenix, Arizona; Helen Coster in Raleigh, North Carolina; Stephanie Kelly in Asheville, North Carolina; Steve Holland in Palm Beach, Florida; Rich McKay and Timothy Reid in Atlanta, Georgia; edited by Ross Colvin, Paul Thomasch, Howard Goller and Alistair Bell)