Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump have hit the campaign trail pressing their case with voters from Georgia to Pennsylvania who are already starting to cast ballots in the US presidential election.
Ms Harris and Mr Trump are essentially tied in the most competitive states and many Americans are voting early by mail or in person, with just 17 days until the 5 November election.
Ms Harris rallied supporters at a get-out-the-vote event in Detroit, Michigan, for the city's first day of early voting, alongside Detroit-born rapper Lizzo, who said voting was crucial in a state where thin margins can determine elections.
"This is the swing state of all swing states, so every single last vote here counts," Lizzo said.
A handful of swing states, where candidates from both parties have strong support, are likely to decide the election.
Ms Harris, the US vice president, urged her supporters to put in an all-out effort to win.
"On Election Day, we don't want to have any regrets about what we could have done these next 17 days," she told about 300 voters who planned to march together to an early-voting site.
She said early voting had already set records in Georgia and North Carolina, and challenged Detroit - a city known for producing musical recordings - to follow suit.
Ms Harris' next stop was Atlanta, Georgia, for a rally with another singer, Usher, who is currently headlining a three-date concert tour in the southern city.
Early voting started in Georgia this week.
"Donald Trump has proven himself to be increasingly unstable and unfit and he is trying to take us backward," Ms Harris told reporters in Detroit.
She will need strong results in the majority non-white cities of Detroit and Atlanta and their surrounding suburbs to repeat US President Joe Biden's 2020 wins in Michigan and Georgia.
Mr Trump planned to stage a rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, seeking to take advantage of what he felt was an improved position for him in opinion polls that show a deadlocked race.
Some voters already have mail-in ballots in the state, which is the biggest prize on Election Day among battleground states and could tip the 2024 race.
Early voting also starts in Nevada, where former President Barack Obama was expected to campaign for Ms Harris in Las Vegas.
Both 2024 candidates spent yesterday in closely contested Michigan, trading jabs about their fitness for office.
Harris, Trump spar over who has stamina
Ms Harris raised questions about Mr Trump's physical stamina to serve effectively as president as the two rivals campaigned in the deadlocked battleground state, with Mr Trump lashing back about the energy he has shown on the campaign trail.
Ms Harris, who turns 60 tomorrow, pressed the case to raise doubts about the 78-year-old.
Age had been an issue when Mr Biden, 81, was still in the race, but had faded after he dropped his election bid.
Ms Harris said news reports that Mr Trump was skipping interviews because he was tired and had passed on the chance of a second debate with her raised questions about his fitness for office.
"It should be a concern. If he can't handle the rigors of the campaign trail, is he fit to do the job?" she told reporters before a rally in Grand Rapids. "That's a legitimate question."
Mr Trump has skipped some appearances, but his campaign has not provided reasons.
The former president, talking to reporters as he arrived in Detroit, rejected such talk. "I've gone 48 days now without a rest," he said.
"I'm not even tired. I'm really exhilarated. You know why? We're killing her in the polls, because the American people don't want her," he said.
In a Fox & Friends interview, he also criticised negative television ads on Fox about him and said he would ask Rupert Murdoch, the founder of News Corp and who also launched Fox News, to ensure such ads are not broadcast until Election Day.
"I'm going to say, 'Rupert, please do it this way and then we're going to have a victory, cause everyone wants that,'" Mr Trump said.
He visited a campaign office in Hamtramck, where he heard praise from the Detroit suburb's first Muslim mayor, Amer Ghalib.
Mr Trump was seeking support from Arab Americans in Michigan disenchanted with Democrats, Ms Harris and President Biden over US support for Israel in the Gaza conflict.
"We all ultimately want one thing. We want peace in the Middle East. We're going to get peace in the Middle East. It's going to happen very fast. It can happen with the right leadership in Washington," Mr Trump said, without elaborating.
In Oakland County, Ms Harris welcomed members of the Arab American community to her rally and touted prospects for peace in the aftermath of the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
In the evening, Mr Trump returned to Detroit, Michigan's largest city, for a rally after saying on 10 October that the rest of the US would turn into Detroit if Ms Harris won.
There, his microphone stopped working and the former president roamed around the stage for some 20 minutes.
"I won't pay the bill for this stupid company that rented us this," Mr Trump said after the audio started working again. "This is the worst mic I've ever had in my life."
The dead-mic incident took place days after Mr Trump stopped talking and swayed and bopped to his musical playlist at a Pennsylvania town hall event after two people in the audience fell ill.
Ms Harris, after speaking in Grand Rapids, the heart of more conservative western Michigan, headed east to Lansing and then Oakland County, encompassing suburbs northwest of Detroit, last night.
The Midwestern state has about 8.4 million voters and would bring the winner 15 Electoral College votes out of the 270 needed to win, which could be a decisive number.
Ms Harris and Mr Trump are battling fiercely for the state's Arab American, senior, union and working-class voters.
Public and internal campaign polls show razor-thin margins for either Ms Harris or Mr Trump in Michigan and other battleground states. That is worrying Democrats.
Mr Trump won Michigan by 11,000 votes in 2016. In 2020, Mr Biden beat him in the state by 155,000 votes.
Ms Harris is shifting the strategy of her campaign to win over more Republicans and men of all races.
She is also enlisting popular former first lady Michelle Obama, who will campaign for Ms Harris in Michigan on 26 October.
"I understand why people are looking to shake things up," Mr Obama said at an Arizona campaign event in support of Ms Harris.
"What I cannot understand is why anyone would think that Donald Trump will shake things up in a way that is good for you," he added.
Nationally, Kamala Harris' edge has narrowed from a late September lead of seven percentage points over Mr Trump to just three points, Reuters/Ipsos polling shows, with high food and rent prices still worrying Americans and Trump amplifying fears related to migrants crossing the US-Mexico border with increasingly extreme rhetoric.
