Bush and Kerry neck and neck in sprint finish
The final day of campaigning brings to an end one of the most bitterly contested and expensive election races in US history.
It is also one of the closest contests the nation has seen, with a new poll putting the president and his Democratic challenger in a dead heat.
Senator Kerry wiped out President Bush's recent small poll lead, with a Gallup poll for CNN and USA Today putting both men on 49%.
Mr Bush led by 51% to 46% at the same time last week.
The key to winning is securing victory in less than a dozen battleground states, including the Big Three Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio.
A combined poll of the states found Senator Kerry has a five point lead. He is leading in Florida and Ohio and trailing in Pennsylvania.
But the race in the battleground states could still be swung by undecided voters.
Based on previous elections, Gallup estimates nine out of 10 undecided voters will back Senator Kerry.
It was in the swing states that all efforts were being focused on the final day of campaigning.
Mr Bush undertook a mammoth six-state tour, holding so-called "victory rallies" in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Texas, Iowa and New Mexico.
He started the day in Ohio, where he told supporters Mr Kerry would raise taxes if he was elected.
Mr Kerry began his day in Florida and moved north to Wisconsin and Ohio.
The Gallup poll also found Osama bin Laden's weekend video warning to America failed to boost support for Mr Bush, as some observers had predicted.
In addition, last week's reports that 380 tonnes of explosives may have been looted from an Iraqi arms dump appeared to harm Mr Bush's standing.
His poll lead on the question of who would better handle the situation in Iraq shrank from 11 to four points.
And the 22-point lead Mr Bush had in handling terrorism was halved.
In more bad news for the president, his job-approval rating once again slipped below the 48% mark.
Having an approval rating of 50% or above is considered crucial for a president seeking re-election.
With such a tight race, both candidates poured vast amounts of money into their campaigns.
More than €470 million has been spent by both candidates, their parties and allied groups triple the amount spent on TV and radio commercials in 2000.
Since March, Mr Kerry and the Democratic Party have poured about 195m into television and radio adverts compared with about €188m by Mr Bush and the Republican National Committee.
Groups which support the two candidates, but are not officially aligned with them, have also spent heavily with left wing groups out-spending the right by €54m to €31m.
"The story this whole year has been the sheer volume of ads," said TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group president Evan Tracey.
"This is an election that I think changes politics."
Most of the commercials were targeted at the battleground states. Also in the key states vast "get-out-the-vote" armies were engaged in last minute attempts to mobilise their support base and get them to the polls.
Thousands of lawyers from both sides were on standby in the event of any election day voting irregularities.
Following the 2000 election, which came down to a dispute over votes cast for Mr Bush and Al Gore in Florida, neither side is taking any chances.
Mr Kerry told ABC News he expects a record turnout and said he believed "Americans are determined not to see a repeat of 2000."
Mr Bush told NBC it was vital to have a clear winner on election night, especially considering how closely the process is being watched around the world.
"We'll see how it goes Tuesday night, but I really think it's important not to have a world of lawsuits that stop the will of the people from going forward," he said.
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