AMERICA went to the polls yesterday to decide the winner of the most divisive presidential election in modern history. After a bruising 18-month election cycle, latest opinion polls showed Hillary Clinton with an edge over Donald Trump.

    Former U.S. Secretary of State Clinton led Trump — a blunt-spoken real estate mogul making his first run for elected office — nationally by 4 percentage points, according to a pair of polls released on the last day before the election.

    ABC News/Washington Post and CBS News surveys out Monday showed Clinton heading into Election Day with a moderate lead over Trump in a four-person race among likely voters that includes Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein.

    In the ABC/News Washington tracking poll, Clinton garnered 47 percent support, followed by Trump at 43 percent, Johnson at 4 percent and Stein at 1 percent.

    Clinton led by 10 points among the 36 percent of respondents who said they have cast early votes, 53 percent to 43 percent.

    Clinton’s lead is by the same margin in the CBS News poll, in which she topped Trump, 45 percent to 41 percent.

    And a majority of likely voters (55 percent) think Clinton will win the election.

    Other surveys released by Fox News and NBC and the Wall Street Journal also found Clinton with a 4-point lead. Real Clear Politics projects 216 safe electoral votes for Clinton and 164 for Trump, with 158 electoral votes still seen as toss-ups.

    U.S. presidential elections are not decided by the national popular vote but rather in the Electoral College, where the results are tallied in each of the 50 states and the national capital, Washington.

    The Reuters/Ipsos States of the Nation project estimates that Clinton has a 90 percent chance of winning the election.

    The frenzied last leg of the 2016 presidential campaign culminated after midnight Monday in rival late-night rallies coursing with anger and emotion, as Trump hammered Clinton as corrupt and Clinton cast the election as “the test of our time.”

    Clinton closed her campaign with an energetic rally in Raleigh, accompanied by former president Bill Clinton and their daughter Chelsea. Singer Lady Gaga performed for an audience in which nearly every person raised hands when asked how many had voted early.

    North Carolina’s results are expected to be extremely close, and the surprise addition of Hillary Clinton’s midnight rally suggested a degree of worry for Democrats. After the election ends, she told voters around 1 a.m., “I want you to understand, our work together will be just beginning.”

    Meanwhile, Trump took the stage at his final pre-election rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, at about midnight yesterday — capping a five-state final push that started in Florida on Monday morning and weaved though North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire.

    “Today is our independence day. Today the American working class is going to strike back,” he told the late-night audience that gathered at a convention center to hear him speak.

    (SD-Agencies)