WASHINGTON – President Bush and Senator Kerry charged through a frantic final day of campaigning yesterday from the crack of dawn until late at night, hoping to eke out the votes that would allow them to break what opinion polls say is a deadlocked race. Now the historic decision is handed to America’s voters.

An upbeat Mr. Bush, who said his enthusiastic supporters had given him a second wind, started at Ohio on a six state, seven-stop tour that took in the upper Midwest before finishing down south in New Mexico and Texas, where the president attended a home-state rally in Dallas. His Democratic challenger began with an early-morning rally in Florida before flying north and working the heartland for a final time.

Mr. Bush focused on the economy when stumping in the Midwest and promised better times. “I know the economy of this state has been through a lot, but we are moving in the right direction,” he told flag-waving and cheering supporters in Wilmington, Ohio, where traffic backed up for miles before dawn as thousands turned out to catch a glimpse of the president.

“We have to keep your taxes low, and I want you to remind your friends and neighbors that my opponent will raise taxes on Ohio’s families and Ohio’s small businesses,” Mr. Bush said. He was introduced by the Boston Red Sox ace, Curt Schilling, who said voters should make sure to elect a president who “has the courage and the character to stay on the offense against terrorism until the war is won.”

Mr. Bush won Ohio in 2000, and no Republican has been elected to the Buckeye State, but the loss there of 230,000 jobs since he came into office has put the state in play.

Later, at an outdoor rally in Pennsylvania, the president again sought to reassure Americans that the economy is recovering. “I know this state depends on a healthy steel and coal economy,” Mr. Bush said of the Keystone State, which has lost 70,300 jobs since he took office. “We will insist on free and fair trade, and we will make those industries strong for the Pennsylvania recovery,” he said.

The president also spoke about the war on terrorism and about Iraq, urging Americans to vote for “a safer America and a stronger America and a better America.”

“The American president must lead with clarity and purpose,” he said. “As presidents from Lincoln to Roosevelt to Reagan so clearly demonstrated, a president must not shift with the wind.”

Mr. Kerry, in the Sunshine State, took Roman Catholic Mass for the second consecutive day. In Orlando, the senator told supporters: “This is the moment of accountability for America. It’s the moment where the world is watching what you’re going to do.”

In Iowa several hours later, he pledged a fresh start in Iraq. “I know what we need to do and so do you,” Mr. Kerry said. “It is inexcusable that American troops have been sent to war without the armor they need, without the number of troops that they need, without the ability to have allies at their side, making America stronger. This president rushed to war without a plan to win the peace, and we need a commander in chief who knows how to get the job done.”

In Ohio and Wisconsin, Mr. Kerry pledged if elected to be an advocate for the middle class and those struggling to join it. “I’ve heard your struggles,” he said. “I share your hopes. And together, tomorrow we have a chance to make a difference.”

The motorcades of the rivals briefly crossed paths in Wisconsin, as Mr. Kerry was kept waiting at the Milwaukee airport while the president left town.

As the candidates campaigned, their aides scrutinized private and public polling data, but none of it provided a firm clue as to the winner. A couple of national polls picked up an apparent minuscule swing to the president, with an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll giving Mr. Bush a one-percentage-point edge over Mr. Kerry. An earlier survey for the same organizations had the candidates tied at 48%. A Fox News poll published yesterday, though, gave Mr. Kerry a two-percentage-point advantage over Mr. Bush.

But all the eve-of-election national polls were within the margin of error, providing no firm footing for forecasts. Using data on voting behavior from previous elections, the Gallup Organization couldn’t break the polling deadlock, reporting yesterday that undecided voters would break evenly on Election Day, with both candidates receiving 49%. Officials of Gallup said that was unprecedented in the eve-of-election polling.

In battleground polls the two rivals remain locked, except that a survey in Minnesota gave Mr. Kerry a clear advantage of eight percentage points, and a survey in Wisconsin gave the president the same margin.

Polls found Mr. Bush leading among likely voters by statistically insignificant margins of two percentage points in Iowa and four percentage points in Pennsylvania. Polls gave Mr. Kerry an edge of three percentage points in Florida and four percentage points in Ohio – again within the margin of error.

With no real movement in the polls and the prospect mounting of a tied race and court combat, anxiety was mounting among Republicans yesterday about the health of Chief Justice Rehnquist, who was expected to return to the Supreme Court yesterday following a tracheotomy last week and the start of treatment for thyroid cancer.

In a statement,Mr.Rehnquist,75,announced that he is undergoing radiation treatment and chemotherapy, prompting concern that he may have a serious form of the illness.

“According to my doctors, my plan to return to the office today was too optimistic,” he said.

Justice Stevens, who is presiding over the court in the absence of the chief justice, said Mr. Rehnquist could still vote in cases being argued this week.

In the event of an eventual appeal concerning today’s election, however, it isn’t clear what role the chief justice would be able to play. In his statement, Mr. Rehnquist said he continued “to be in close contact with my colleagues, my law clerks, and members of the Supreme Court staff.”

Both Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry yesterday expressed hope that the election will produce a clear winner. The president told Dateline NBC it is “important not to have a world of lawsuits that stop the will of the people from going forward.” Talking to ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Mr. Kerry predicted “a record turnout” and said, “Americans are determined not to see a repeat of 2000.”

Early voting has been at record levels in 32 states across the country, according to election officials, with nearly 2 million voters in Florida alone already casting ballots for their candidate. But complaints about irregularities, too, are mounting.

The Washington-based watchdog group Common Cause said it had received more than 53,000 calls nationally, with more than 8,000 coming from the Sunshine State. Many of the complaints concerned missing absentee ballots and long waits at polling stations.

In Ohio, Democrats won a pair of court rulings yesterday barring party representatives from challenging voters at their polling places. GOP lawyers quickly appealed. With both parties having deployed thousands of lawyers in the battleground states, a photo finish is bound to spark legal challenges.

The vice-presidential candidates campaigned separately from their ticket leaders.

Senator Edwards, who campaigned in the Midwest and Florida, said, “The American dream is on the ballot.”

In Honolulu, Vice President Cheney invoked the twin horrors of Pearl Harbor and September 11 as he ripped Mr. Kerry’s record on national security and said, “John Kerry’s goose is cooked.”

“The clearest, most important difference in this campaign is simple to state: President Bush understands the war on terror and has a strategy for winning it. John Kerry does not,” Mr. Cheney said.

The vice president’s campaign visit to Hawaii is the first by a candidate on a major national ticket since 1960, when Vice President Nixon went, only to lose the state to Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts by 115 votes. Recent polls in Hawaii have Mr. Bush and Mr. Kerry – who was represented in the state late last week by his daughter Alexandra and Vice President Gore – running close.

With the national polls showing the race dead even, both campaigns concede that turnout will be all-important today. The Democrats are banking on get-out-the-vote operations run by labor unions and other organizations, arguing that those efforts will make the difference for them in Pennsylvania and Ohio. The GOP, too, is mounting an unprecedented get-out-the-vote effort, and Republican officials maintain that Election Day will see a major defection by conservative Democrats.

Mr. Kerry added star power to his last-minute push for votes, with singers Jon Bon Jovi, Stevie Wonder, and Bruce Springsteen serving as opening acts for rallies in Milwaukee, Detroit, and Cleveland, respectively.

The Springsteen-Kerry combo brought out a massive sea of people that filled the city hall mall.

Mr. Kerry, who also plays the guitar, said he was thrilled that Mr. Springsteen gave him his guitar pick as he came off stage.