The US presidential candidates competed in the key swing state of North Carolina on Saturday in a bid to win more votes for the election on Tuesday, November 5th.

It was the fourth straight day that Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump visited the same state on the same day, emphasizing how the votes of some key states would decide the outcome of the polls.

More than 73 million Americans have already cast their ballots as of Saturday, according to the University of Florida's Election Lab.

Harris met up with rock star Jon Bon Jovi and R&B singer-songwriter Khalid in the city of Charlotte before making a surprise appearance on the hugely popular Saturday Night Live show in New York.

Meanwhile, Trump made a stop in the state of Virginia before heading to Gastonia and Greensboro in North Carolina.

What are the latest updates from the surveys?

Nationally, FiveThirtyEight's latest poll tracker showed Harris within the margin of error by a very narrow one-point lead. Neither of the two leading candidates exceeded the 50 percent mark. Harris' average is 47.9 percent, while Trump's is 46.9 percent.

In the so-called blue wall states, which usually lean Democratic but are considered swing states this year, Trump is slightly ahead of Harris with 47.9 percent in Pennsylvania, while Harris is in Michigan and Wisconsin respectively 1 percent ahead.

Trump leads Harris by 1 percent in Nevada, 2 percent in Georgia and North Carolina and 3 percent in Arizona.

But in a potentially major political shift in Iowa, a state Trump won in 2016 and 2020, a highly respected pollster showed Harris leading Trump by three percentage points, 47 to 44.

The poll, published jointly by the Des Moines Register newspaper and Mediacom, found that Harris has support among women, particularly in the older demographic and among independent voters who are not affiliated with a political party.

At the same time, polls showed that only 89 percent of Republicans supported Trump, meaning he is struggling to secure his base.

However, other polls in the state showed Trump still ahead of Harris.

What did Harris plan to do on Saturday?

While campaigning in the North Carolina city of Charlotte, Harris made an impassioned appeal to young voters, a Democratic-leaning demographic, to turn out at the polls. However, past elections have shown that fewer of them turned out to vote compared to older voters.

“Every day I see the promise of America in the young leaders who vote for the first time,” she said.

“You are determined to live free from gun violence, address the climate crisis and shape the world you will inherit.”

She also continued to escalate her attack on Trump, saying the former president was only looking out for his interests without a comprehensive plan for the future.

“If elected, Donald Trump would be running through his list of enemies on his first day in office,” she said. “But if elected, I will step in on your behalf and work on my to-do list.”

As her speech was interrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters, Harris repeated the same phrase she had said at previous rallies: “We all want this war in the Middle East to end.”

“We want the hostages to come home. And when I am president, I will do everything in my power to make that happen.”

Earlier in the day, Harris also attended a rally in Atlanta where she called Trump “unstable” and “seeking unchecked power.”

After campaigning in North Carolina, Harris appeared on the sketch comedy series “Saturday Night Live” in New York City alongside actress Maya Rudolph, who portrays her on the show.

“I’m going to vote for us,” Rudolph told Harris.

What did Trump plan to do on Saturday?

Trump squeezed a rally in blue-leaning Virginia between two events in neighboring North Carolina. For him, it was the start of a series of successes in North Carolina, where he will campaign until Election Day.

Trump used his evening rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, to blame dwindling trust in the US media.

“When we started this journey in 2015, fake news had an approval rating of 92 percent. And now they are below the Congress, which is in the bottom 12,” he said.

“I’m very proud of that because I exposed them as fakes.”

He then returned to one of his favorite topics of conversation: fears of illegal immigration to the United States.

“I will preserve American communities for American citizens. “We will have Americans in our communities,” Trump said, repeating the nativist rhetoric that has become par for the course in his “America First” agenda.

He also sought to direct his anti-immigrant message to non-white voters in the U.S., warning, for example, that unfettered immigration could worsen black communities.

“If this continues, there will be no political power for them,” Trump said. “Their communities will be majority immigrants.”

Trump repeated the false claim that Congolese migrants were coming to the US.

Harris, he said, “has broken her oath, erased our sovereign border and unleashed an army of gangs and criminal migrants from prisons, mental asylums and mental institutions around the world, from Venezuela to Congo.”

“Oh, the Congo. Congo sends a lot of people. They send their people to prison. Think of the money they will save and the danger, the danger, of the whole thing.”

There is no evidence that the Congolese government is sending people from its prisons to the United States.

What's next for the Harris and Trump campaigns?

Harris is traveling to Michigan and Pennsylvania

On Sunday, the Democratic presidential candidate travels to Lansing, Michigan, for the final two days of the election season.

In Pennsylvania, another key battleground and also a Rust Belt state, Harris will end her series of campaign rallies on Monday.

She plans to perform on the eve of the election in the Latino stronghold of Allentown, as well as major urban centers such as Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

Trump travels to Pennsylvania and North Carolina

On Sunday, Trump will fly from Pennsylvania back to the southern state to visit Kinston, North Carolina.

And then on Monday – the eve of the election – Trump will arrive in the state capital, Raleigh, North Carolina.

It is a significant investment in a state that has become increasingly competitive in recent decades.

Recent polls have shown Trump slightly ahead of Harris in North Carolina.