Polls nationally and in the vital swing states show no clear leader, reflecting a country that is polarized just as sharply as when the race started. But the possibility remains that one candidate has managed to fashion a late advantage in battlegrounds including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada and Arizona, and could sweep to a wider-than-anticipated win.

Trump is getting more extreme by the hour in outbursts that seem to augur a fresh attempt to defy the will of voters if he loses. For instance, he claimed falsely in Pennsylvania on Sunday that Democrats are “fighting so hard to steal this damn thing” and that voting machines would be tampered with, while saying he shouldn’t have left the White House in 2021.