Trump is virtually out of time to turn the election in his favor, and it’s becoming clearer how he plans to dispute the results

• According to polling one day from Election Day, President Donald Trump is not projected to win re-election.
• Over the past few days, the outlines of a plan from Trump and his allies has emerged — to contest the results in ways large and small.
• Trump has continually — and without evidence — suggested that mail-in ballots are open to fraud and should be discounted.
• This weekend, reports suggest that he and his allies plan to challenge the results of such ballots down to a granular level.
• Trump has also floated the idea of prematurely declaring himself the victor.

With Election Day less than 24 hours away, President Donald Trump's causes for optimism are diminishing.

A slew of polls over the weekend, including authoritative New York Times/Siena College polls, reinforced what has been said for weeks: Trump is trailing Democratic nominee Joe Biden in many of the states key to his reelection.

According to the Times poll, victory in several Republican-leaning states in the so-called "Sun Belt" is now within Biden's grasp.

There is still the chance of a last minute surge in support for Trump. Or maybe, as in 2016, pollsters have badly underestimated Trump's support.

But these are not possibilities the Trump campaign appears to have much faith in.

A number of reports over the weekend indicate that Trump will, instead, press to disqualify thousands of ballots likely cast for his opponent.

• In the most explicit declaration of the aggressive legal strategy he will likely deploy after Election Day, Trump on Sunday told reporters: "we're going to go in the night of, as soon as that election is over, we're going in with our lawyers."
• At a closed-door event for donors in Nashville, reported by The Washington Post, Trump said he plans to dispute results in some places down to the individual ballot, repeating previous unsupported claims that the election is vulnerable to mass fraud.
• On Saturday, two Trump advisers told The New York Times that Trump's best hope is to win Ohio, where polls indicate he has a slender lead, then hope that Florida is slow to announce.
  
  This, they argued, would have the effect of "depriving Mr. Biden a swift victory and giving Mr. Trump the room to undermine the validity of uncounted mail-in ballots in the days after."
• On Sunday, Axios, citing sources close to the president, reported that Trump plans to proclaim himself the victor as early as Tuesday night if initial results show him ahead.
  
  This would be in line with a so-called "red mirage" scenario whereby in-person voters give Trump and early lead, which is expected to diminish when early votes are tallied. If Trump proclaims himself winner it has no legal bearing on the outcome of the election.
• A series of lawsuits by Republicans in swing states in recent weeks give a clue of the grounds on which they will likely dispute mail-in ballots:
  
  In Nevada, Republicans last week claimed that the processes being used by officials to verify mail-in ballot signatures are invalid.
  
  Republicans last week won a Supreme Court battle meaning that ballots received after Election Day in Wisconsin can't be counted.
  
  But in Pennsylvania and North Carolina the court ruled they would be valid. However, such mail-in ballots will be held separately, making it easier for Republicans to challenge their authenticity.

In reponse, attorneys on Biden's campaign will likely vigorously challenge attempts to rule out mail-in ballots. Biden told reporters after a rally on Sunday that Trump "is not going to steal this election."