US presidential election start

Americans have begun casting their votes at polling stations across East Coast states, such as New York and Maine, in one of the most critical days in the country’s history.

Vermont was the first to open at 5am local time, with voters braving the dark and cold to line up and have their say on whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden should occupy the White House for the next four year term.

States further west are gradually beginning to open their doors to voters, with the world’s gaze firmly fixed on the US election and in particular large battleground states that could swing the election such as Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

More than 98 million Americans have cast their votes early in the 2020 presidential election, according to a University of Florida tally. The figure is about 71 per cent of the total vote recorded in 2016.

Voting is different this time as the coronavirus pandemic grapples with the whole world – the most affected country being the US with over 9 million infections.

Trump himself is planning to visit his campaign headquarters in Virginia, while Biden will travel to his birthplace of Scranton, the scrappy Pennsylvania town where Trump also visited on Monday.

The result is usually called on the night of election day, which this year is Tuesday 3 November.

Different states stop voting at different times. The first polls close on the East Coast at 19:00 local time (00:00 GMT).

This is followed by a running total of votes as they are reported in each state.

The full count is never completed on election night – but enough votes are usually in to confirm a winner.

A state is “called” by major US media outlets when they believe one candidate has an unbeatable lead.

But at this stage, when most but not all of the votes will have been counted, this is a projection, not the final result.

Compiled by: Basma Qaddour