Donald Trump on Tuesday cast doubt on the integrity of the vote in Philadelphia, a critical city in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, as reports of exceptionally high voter turnout emerged.

The former president, who has previously made unsupported claims of election fraud in 2020, took to his Truth Social platform, alleging "massive cheating" in the city. However, his statement was swiftly denied by local officials, who called it "yet another example of disinformation."

"Law enforcement coming!!" Trump wrote, providing no evidence to support his accusations. The claim surfaced as Americans voted in a highly competitive election, with polls suggesting a near tie between Trump and Kamala Harris.

City Commissioner Seth Bluestein, a Republican, promptly refuted Trump's claims, stating, "There is absolutely no truth to this allegation. Voting in Philadelphia has been safe and secure." Philadelphia police did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the matter.

Trump, who still rejects his loss in the 2020 election, has previously incited violence with baseless claims of widespread fraud. His supporters' assault on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, aimed to block the certification of the election result. With the 2024 election underway, the specter of further unrest looms, particularly if Trump challenges the outcome once again.

Trump’s remarks about the integrity of the vote in Pennsylvania, a key state in the presidential race, echo his earlier efforts to undermine confidence in the election system.

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Pennsylvania's Democratic Governor, Josh Shapiro, who defeated 43 challenges to the 2020 vote count from Trump and his allies, rejected the allegations in a CNN interview last week.

When asked on Tuesday if he would accept a defeat in the 2024 election, Trump responded cautiously: "If I lose an election, if it's a fair election, I would be the first one to acknowledge it. So far I think it's been fair."

Soaring fears of unrest 

Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump appear to be locked in a razor-thin race, with national opinion polls showing little change in recent weeks.

The situation is similar in seven critical swing states—Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, and North Carolina. Recent polling has failed to reveal a clear pattern or advantage for either candidate in these electoral battlegrounds, although most experts agree that the winner of Pennsylvania is likely to gain a significant edge.

“If we win Pennsylvania, we win the whole ball of wax,” Trump, 78, declared at a rally in Reading during a frantic final day of campaigning in the state. Later, in Pittsburgh, he framed the election as a choice between “a golden age of America” if he returned to the White House or “four more years of misery, failure, and disaster” under Harris, as he articulated it. 

Harris, 60, spent all of Monday in Pennsylvania, wrapping up her campaign in Philadelphia alongside singer Lady Gaga and TV personality Oprah Winfrey, who warned about the threat Trump poses to democracy. “We don’t get to sit this one out,” Winfrey stated. “If we don’t show up tomorrow, it is entirely possible that we will not have the opportunity to ever cast a ballot again.”

Swing states hold the key to election victory in electoral college showdown

The swing states will ultimately decide the election, as the US political system determines outcomes not by the national popular vote but through an electoral college that allocates electors based roughly on each state's population size. A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win, and battleground states are those where polls suggest outcomes could go either way

More than 78 million early ballots have been cast, but the final results may not be known quickly. With such tight polling, full results from crucial swing states are unlikely to be available on Tuesday night and may not even come in on Wednesday, leaving the US and the world anxiously awaiting the identity of the next president.