NEW YORK: Republic presidential nominee Donald Trump has said that if he ends up losing his bid for the White House on Tuesday, he will consider his nearly 15-month-long campaign to be the single greatest waste of time, energy and money of his life.
Addressing Republican supporters at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds on Monday, the day before Election Day, the atlantic.com website quoted him, as saying, "If we don't win, I will consider it the single greatest waste of time, energy-wow, you need energy for this-the single greatest waste of time, energy, and money," he said.
"If we don't win, all of us,honestly? We've all wasted our time," he added.
Almost everybody in America is aware that a Trump victory hinges on him gaining the maximum number of votes from Florida on Tuesday.
According to the Washington Times, Trump's path to the White House is virtually impossible without winning Florida, and if Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton can hold the state, she's all but guaranteed a return trip to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
"If Hillary wins Florida, then most likely Hillary is going to be the next president of the United States, and it is going to be a short night," the Washington Times quoted Aubrey Jewett, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, as saying.
"If Trump wins Florida or is ahead in Florida, then the race can go well into the evening, and he certainly has a shot of winning overall," she added.
According to the daily, Florida could also provide early signs about whether Republicans are on course to retain control of the U.S. Senate and if the party's large majority in the U.S. House of Representatives is in jeopardy.
Trump considers Florida his second home because of his landmark Mar-a-Largo Club in Palm Beach, and the outcome of the presidential race is unlikely to be decided until at least after the polls close at 9 p.m. across the Rust Belt states of Michigan and Wisconsin.
Flipping one of those typically blue states to red could be necessary to get Trump, the 270 electoral votes he requires to win.
The polls also close at 9 p.m. in swing state Colorado, where Mrs. Clinton has consistently led and where a win by Trump could signal a GOP landslide.
Along with Florida, the polls close at 8 p.m. in battlegrounds Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. Victories for Mr. Trump in these states - especially Pennsylvania - would confirm that the race is tilting toward the billionaire businessman. So far, according to reports, Clinton is holding onto her lead in the Pennsylvania race.
Voting in the Sunshine state could also provide an early clue about whether the Democratic Party is poised to seize control of the U.S. Senate.
Senate Republicans now hold a 54-46 majority in the 100-member chamber. Democrats need a net gain of five seats to take over the chamber, or four seats if Clinton wins the Oval Office.
Florida is among eight states with close races for the U.S. Senate. But the closest races where Republican seats are in jeopardy are Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.
The results in Florida also will give an early indication of whether the GOP majority in the House is at risk.
The polls close at 7 p.m. in Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia.
Mrs. Clinton has been running in the lead and looking for a decisive victory in Virginia, a once reliably red state that appears to have fully realigned since turning blue for President Obama in 2008 and 2012.
The race in Georgia has been unusually close, but a win there for Mr. Trump would also signal that he is winning where Republicans need to run strong.
Another two crucial battleground states close the polls at 7:30 - North Carolina and Ohio.
Mr. Obama narrowly won North Carolina in 2008 but lost there to Republican Mitt Romney in 2012. The Clinton campaign has poured resources into the state, including repeat visits by Mr. Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, in an effort to deny Mr. Trump the state's 15 electoral votes.
A win for Mr. Trump in North Carolina would confirm that the Clinton firewall has been broken. If Mr. Trump couples that with a victory in must-win Ohio, he will have opened up a clear path to the White House.
North Carolina and Ohio also weigh heavily on the battle for control of the Senate.
According to the Huffington Post, Trump's lying ways says a lot about his campaign and its lasting impact on future elections.
It said "Acts that used to engender strong backlash have become mundane. Even worse, important political precedents have been broken and troubling social trends have been normalized."
It also highlighted the fact that Trump is now the first major party candidate in 40 years not to release his tax returns during the election.
Such an act of secrecy, it says sets a precedent that future candidates can cite should they choose the path of non-disclosure.
Emphasis is also placed on Trump's hostile relationship with the media.
During his campaign, he refused to allow a traveling press corps to fly with him ? a major departure from past nominees.
He has described reporters as "dishonest" "lying" "scum," threatened lawsuits, pledged to "open up" libel laws, and singled out correspondents by name at rallies.
At those rallies, the treatment of the press has become so alarming that journalists occasionally have had to rely on law enforcement protection to get in and out.
ABC News has trained its focus on Stop the Steal, a controversial political group affiliated with Trump backer Roger Stone and the target of active Democratic lawsuits.
For weeks, the group has used incendiary rhetoric to motivate members to turn up at contested areas tomorrow to participate in a survey of voters leaving polling places. But after Democrats sued the group for alleged conspiracy to intimidate minority voters, Stop the Steal is now warning poll monitors against speaking to voters before ballots are cast, entering polling places, or wearing displays that promote a candidate.
Stop the Steal and Stone have come under intense scrutiny recently after attorneys for Democratic plaintiffs filed several lawsuits against them, along with the Trump campaign and various Republican state parties.
Stop the Steal maintains its mission is to ensure voting integrity by gathering exit poll data to compare to voting machine results in heavily-contested areas. Attorneys for the group argue its right to conduct an exit poll -- even one that fails to meet rigorous scientific standards -- is protected under the First Amendment.
It has listed eight guidelines to voters, which are as follows:
1. Speak (or encourage anyone else to speak ) to any voter before he goes into a polling place, about ANYTHING, or who appears to be in line to vote or headed into a polling place.
2. Speak to ANYONE within 100 feet of the entrance to any polling place
3. Go inside a polling location for any reason other than to vote yourself, and when voting yourself and inside a polling place say or do anything not directly related to casting your own vote
4. Record by audio or video or any other method of sound or video reproduction the comments of anyone who has voted without that person's permission
5. Wear or display any badge, button, or clothing that promotes any political candidate or party
6. Photograph the conduct of voting at a polling place or record the conduct of voting, or of any voter in line to vote (no matter how far distant from a polling place) or who appears to be headed into a polling place to vote or who is within 100 feet of a polling place even if that person has already voted
7. Without regard to distance from a polling place, ask any person who has not yet voted their name, address or political affiliation or how that voter plans to mark his or her ballot
8. It is our goal to conduct a neutral, scientifically-based and methodically sound exit poll at certain targeted precincts for the purpose of preparing the exit poll actual.