RALEIGH, N.C.— Polls opened Tuesday after Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump crisscrossed the presidential battlefield in a final effort to maximize turnout from their supporters, providing a frantic close to an already volatile race.

Mrs. Clinton used her powerful bench of surrogates to stretch her reach and made a joint appearance with two of her strongest, President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, in Philadelphia.

Mr. Trump jetted to five states as he searched for an unorthodox mix of wins that could provide the 270 electoral votes required to take the White House.

While Mrs. Clinton used her events to energize the formidable Democratic turnout machine honed since Mr. Obama's campaigns, Mr. Trump put his fate in the hands of his core supporters.

"To make every dream you've ever dreamed for your country and your family to come true, you have one magnificent chance," Mr. Trump said here. "There's never been a movement like this.…It's not going to happen again."

Tuesday will mark the final showdown in the 2016 election, as about 130 million Americans are expected to cast ballots in one of the most unpredictable campaigns in modern history, with the future of the presidency, Supreme Court and control of the U.S. Senate hanging in the balance. Voters also have a chance to make history by electing the first woman to the White House.

By Monday, at least 42 million people had already cast their ballots, with key states such as Arizona, Florida and Nevada setting records for pre-Election Day turnout. In Florida, more than six million people voted early—a 35% increase from 2012. In North Carolina, about half of all registered voters cast ballots early, amounting to more than 3 million votes.

Through mid-October, campaigns and outside groups backing Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton had spent more than $1 billion on the presidential race, according to a Campaign Finance Institute analysis of Federal Election Commission filings. Mrs. Clinton's campaign had spent $450 million, nearly twice as much as was spent by Mr. Trump's campaign.

The last round of national polls showed Mrs. Clinton with a steady but narrow lead over Mr. Trump, ranging from 3 to 6 percentage points. In The Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Sunday, Mrs. Clinton led by 4 percentage points.

On the last full day of campaigning, the candidates revealed where they think the election will be won or lost and offered strikingly different closing arguments to their audiences.

Mrs. Clinton, whose campaign has been heavily based on analytics and voter data, spent three of her four stops on Monday in Michigan and Pennsylvania—aiming to energize African-American and young voters who helped propel Mr. Obama to his historic victory in 2008.

Both candidates scheduled stops here in Raleigh, the hub of a region home to a large population of black and college-educated voters whom Mrs. Clinton needs, and rural white voters who have powered Mr. Trump's campaign.

In a campaign pockmarked by the most personal attacks in recent memory, Mrs. Clinton called Mr. Trump "temperamentally unqualified and experientially unqualified" for the presidency. She pledged to heal rifts she accused him of stoking since launching his campaign in June 2015.

"We have to start talking to each other again, and we have to get good ideas wherever they come from," Mrs. Clinton said Monday at an outdoor rally at the University of Pittsburgh. "Sometimes, when I hear my opponent speak, I don't recognize the country he's talking about," she added.

"Hillary Clinton is being protected by a totally rigged system," Mr. Trump told supporters Monday morning in Sarasota, Fla. "And now, it's up to the American people to deliver justice at the ballot box tomorrow."

Mr. Trump, in an arena at the North Carolina state fairgrounds, also offered a pre-Election Day lament that even though he has transformed the Republican Party with his proposals to restrict immigration and limit free trade, his campaign will have been fruitless if he doesn't prevail.

"Go vote, because, believe me, if we don't win, all of us, honestly, we've all wasted our time," Mr. Trump said. "They may say good things about us as a movement. It won't mean a damn thing."

Mrs. Clinton enjoys the structural advantages built by Mr. Obama's two presidential campaigns. She can afford to lose several of the battleground states and still become the nation's 45th president, while Mr. Trump must win almost all of them to prevail.

A victory for Mrs. Clinton in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina or Pennsylvania would effectively block any path her GOP rival has to the presidency.

The New York businessman has in recent days sought to build new routes to 270 electoral votes, campaigning in Minnesota and Michigan, even though both have long been Democratic strongholds, and no public polling has shown him ahead in either state.

Part of the campaigns' focus on Michigan and Pennsylvania on Monday is because early voting in each state is limited, leaving more voters to persuade to vote on Tuesday.

"In Pennsylvania, it's all about Election Day," Mrs. Clinton said. "For those who are still making up your minds or thinking of maybe not voting at all, let me just say, the choice in this election could not be clearer."

She pleaded with supporters to remain at polls Tuesday even if—as has been the case at early-voting sites—voters must wait hours at some places to cast ballots.

"If the lines are long tomorrow, please wait," she said.

Another battleground, New Hampshire, also doesn't allow early voting. Mr. Trump and his running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, headed there Monday night for a rally in Manchester. Mr. Obama was there earlier in the evening.

Before his crowds in North Carolina, Mr. Trump recalled the skeptics who doubted his chances when he launched his campaign last year—and how he toppled 16 GOP rivals.

"They said it was the roughest primary," Mr. Trump said. "I would say this was the roughest election."

Write to Reid J. Epstein at Reid.Epstein@wsj.com, Beth Reinhard at beth.reinhard@wsj.com and Carol E. Lee at carol.lee@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 08, 2016 08:05 ET (13:05 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.