Georgia is one of those crucial states swing dates that could come to define the presidential election.

Over on the BBC's election special, presenter Christian Fraser has been crunching the latest numbers from across the state.

Watch his latest take below:

Nadine Yousif
Reporting from Washington, DC

Over at another battleground state, North Carolina, Donald Trump is also leading.

Only 26% of the votes have been reported so far, however, with plenty of more ballots to count before we know for sure who will win this state.

Rachel Looker
Reporting from Washington

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner told reporters on Tuesday evening that while the city "essentially" had a smooth election day, there were two exceptions.

One involved false bomb threats made throughout the biggest city in the swing state. The US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has said the hoax bomb threats - which occurred in other US swing states - seemed to originate from a Russian source.

All locations in Philadelphia were cleared. One was closed for 23 minutes and its hours have been extended, Krasner said.

The second event occurred when an individual walked into a polling place and made a threatening comment insinuating he would bomb the location. He was detained.

Nadine Yousif
Reporting from Washington, DC

Donald Trump is right now leading in the key swing state of Georgia.

But these results could change as more ballots are counted, which you can read more about here. Only 64% of the total votes so far have been reported, and the gap between Kamala Harris and Trump has gotten smaller.

Democrat Josh Stein is on course to be elected governor of North Carolina, according to a projection from the BBC's US partner CBS, after a scandal-hit race.

Allegations that his Republican opponent Mark Robinson posted offensive messages on a porn website's message board, including describing himself as a "black Nazi", emerged during the campaign. Robinson strongly denied the allegations.

Remember, North Carolina is one of the swing states we're watching closely in the presidential election.

The Democrats already held the governorship but a win in the governor race will be seen as a positive early result for the party in the context of their wider ambitions tonight.

Image source, Reuters

There are 50 states in the US and most of them vote for the same political party at every election. But there are a handful of states - known as swing states - where either candidate could win.

These states are Nevada, Arizona, North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

States with more people are worth more, translating to the number of electoral college votes each carries.

There are 538 electoral college votes up for grabs in total. The next president will be the candidate that gets 270 or more. Both candidates will need to win at least three swing states to get them over the line.

For more information about the electoral college, view BBC's visualiser here.

Nadine Yousif
Reporting from Washington, DC

As we get these first results, it's important to remember that it's still too early to tell which way this presidential race is leaning.

When votes were being counted in the 2020 election, Donald Trump appeared to be leading in some key states on election night, but those numbers was later overtaken by votes for Joe Biden as mail-in ballots, heavily favoured by Democrats at the time, were counted.

Right now, in North Carolina and Georgia, Trump leads in the current vote count. But this could be another so-called "red mirage" - and results may later shift in Kamala Harris's favour as more ballots are counted. We'll have to wait for a more complete count before we know the true trend in those states.

Additionally, on the national level, due to the different time zones stretched across the US, some states with smaller electoral college votes (like Kentucky, for example, with eight) will report their results earlier than states with a larger number of votes (like California, with 54), which could reshape the current overall results.

There’s also the battleground states. Both Trump and Harris need to win at least three in order to secure the White House. Whichever way these swing states vote could heavily tilt the election.

Sam Cabral
Reporting from Washington DC

Image source, Getty Images

Aside from the presidential race, one-third of the US Senate - or 34 of its 100 seats - are up for grabs.

Democrats currently control the upper chamber of Congress by a single seat, which they have used effectively to pass some of the Joe Biden administration's signature accomplishments.

If Donald Trump wins tonight, Republicans will retake the Senate by winning just one seat and not losing any.

If Kamala Harris wins, Republicans will win back a Senate majority by gaining two new seats. Control of the Senate would also give them broad power to block or upend much of a theoretical President Harris's agenda.

Senate Democrats are on the defensive in several states and - a short while ago - they lost a seat in West Virginia, as widely expected. The state's governor, Jim Justice, has been projected to win the seat, left vacant by retiring Democrat-turned-independent Senator Joe Manchin.

What are the key races to watch?

Abortion rights have been a defining issue in the presidential race, but tens of millions of voters have also had the opportunity to directly vote on how abortion should be regulated in their state.

Montana, Arizona, Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, New York and South Dakota all have varying abortion initiatives on their ballots - but most seek to allow abortion until foetal viability, which is generally considered to be about 24 weeks, or later only in instances when the health of the pregnant woman is at risk.

We should start seeing some of those results soon, beginning with Maryland shortly.

These proposals are a response to the 2022 Supreme Court decision that overturned the 1970s ruling in Roe v Wade. The historic legal protection had enshrined a national right to abortion for almost 50 years, but with it gone, many states quickly enacted restrictions or bans.

You can read more about the abortion ballot questions here.

Located in the deep South, Arkansas is a solidly red state where Republicans have increased their margins in the last five presidential elections.

Donald Trump was expected to win there.

Nada Tawfik
Reporting from Donald Trump's watch party in Florida

Huge cheers erupted from the crowd here at Donald Trump's election party in Palm Beach, Florida when he was projected as the winner of this state just a few minutes ago.

It was never in doubt that he would carry this former swing state that's now solidly Republican red.

But it’s added to the celebratory mood here.

In the crowd, there's a sea of Maga red hats and eccentric outfits that have become a staple for attendees at Trump rallies.

Blake Marnell often wears his brick-patterned suit to Trump events, in support of the former president's border policies and proposals. He says he's feeling very optimistic, and believes the "true success" of Trump will be how long his "political philosophy endures."

By Anthony Zurcher, North America correspondent

The days of Florida as a presidential battleground are long over.

Twenty-four years ago, a few hundred votes in the state delivered the presidency to Republican George W Bush over Democrat Al Gore. Now, with 73% of the vote counted, Donald Trump has been projected to win the state.

What does this mean?

That’s not a surprise. What might be a bit surprising – and concerning for Democrats – is that Trump holds a narrow lead in Osceola County, near the central Florida city of Orlando, with 85% reporting. Joe Biden won this county in 2020 by 14 points.

More than a third of the population of Osceola is Puerto Rican – a voting group that the Harris campaign has been hoping would decisively back the Democratic ticket after a comedian at a Trump rally made a derisive joke about the Caribbean island.

In Florida, that appears not to be the case.

What does this tell us about the rest of the country?

Of course, in recent elections Florida Republicans have overperformed national results. In 2022, the conservative candidates won handily there even as the party struggled elsewhere. And in 2018, it elected a Republican governor and US senator despite Democrats dominating nationally.

Florida is a red state now.

The BBC's US news partner CBS has projected that Donald Trump will win in South Carolina, another expected result based on the state's historic voting record.

South Carolina, nicknamed the Palmetto state for its state tree, was one of the 13 original British colonies in North America. The heavily red state votes almost exclusively Republican - except in 1976 when it supporter southerner Jimmy Carter.

John Sudworth
Reporting from Georgia

By law, Georgia has to count its early votes – all four million of them - by 20:00 EST (01:00 GMT), and the results are already rolling in, showing an early lead for Donald Trump.

We should be careful of reading anything into that at this stage. Small rural counties, the kinds of places likely to have strong Republican majorities, can count faster than big urban ones that are likely to lean Democratic.

If the vote is as close as expected here, it may not be until later tonight - when the counting of the in-person polling-day votes are counted - that we get a proper sense of which way this is going.

But election officials say, one way or another, we should get a result at some point tonight.

This year's US presidential election has seen a number of unproven allegations of voter fraud and misinformation on the lead up to the big day.

The BBC's social media investigations correspondent Marianna Spring explains how misinformation can impact the election.

Sylvia Chang
BBC Chinese, reporting from Pennsylvania

In Delaware County, Pennsylvania, where polls have just closed, some voters waited in long lines throughout the day.

In Pennsylvania's fifth most populous county, some families waited for about a half an hour while their children played nearby.

A voter surnamed Xiong told me that in all his past years of voting, he had never seen such a long line lasting this late.

"Usually, people line up before 8 am before work, and by noon, the line was gone. But this time, it’s still long,” he said.

"I think everyone understands that no matter which party wins, this election affects us all."

Mr Xiong was pleased to see the turnout, as Delaware County has historically leaned Democratic. "A high turnout could mean a better chance for Democrats over Republicans," he said, which is the outcome he prefers.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from Pennsylvania

One of the most watched states of the evening is Pennsylvania, a politically vital and large state of nearly 13 million people - and 19 Electoral College votes - that was the scene of intense campaigning from both candidates over the last few months.

Nearly three-quarters of residents in Pennsylvania, where polls have just closed, are white, while 11% are African-American. The state is also home to a growing population of Latinos, who now constitute about 9% of the state.

Pennsylvania is also home to large swathes of rural - traditionally conservative - communities, as well as Democratic pockets in its major urban centres.

I’ve been here several times this election cycle, and the thing I’ve found most striking is how the overwhelming majority of voters mention the economy and "pocketbook" issues as their major concern this election cycle.

It won’t be until the results are in that we’ll know which of the two a majority of voters trust can address the daily economic issues that matter in their everyday lives.

We've just had several new projections.

Donald Trump has been projected to win in:

• Florida
• Alabama
• Missouri
• Oklahoma
• Tennessee

Kamala Harris picks up:

• District of Columbia
• Maryland
• Massachusetts

All of these are in line with expectations, according to each state's voting history.

Nadine Yousif
Reporting from Washington, DC

Polls in most of Pennsylvania, as well as 16 other states, are now closed. In an hour or so, polls will start to close in more than a dozen additional states, including Wisconsin, Arizona and Michigan.

We're expected to get more projections for states where voting is finished. Many of these states will be traditional Republican or Democratic strongholds, though one of the key swing states - Georgia - could start reporting its results soon.

We'll also start getting results for an abortion ballot measure in Missouri, which if passed could enshrine the right to abortion until foetal viability in the state, reversing the current ban.

Similarly in South Dakota, we will soon hear how voters decided on their own abortion ballot question.

Currently, all abortions in the state are prohibited except when necessary to save the life of the mother. If passed, the measure would reverse that ban and establish a constitutional right to abortion.

Nadine Yousif
Reporting from Washington, DC

It’s nearly 20:00 here on the East Coast of the US, and almost 01:00 in the UK - I hope you're onto your second round of snacks, as we are.

Here's a recap of what's happened so far, and what's up next:

• Polls in a handful of states are now closed, including in the battlegrounds of North Carolina and Georgia
• Harris and Trump have picked up early wins in some eastern states, while voters in the west of the US are still queuing up to vote
• Some results in Georgia might start coming in within the hour
• A dozen more states will close their polls in the next two hours or so, including in swing states Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona and Wisconsin

A reminder - you can follow our election special by pressing watch live above. And if you're heading to bed, meet us back here in the morning.