The Republicans were widely expected to keep their House majority, they are also battling to keep their advantage in the Senate.

Will Grant
BBC News, Havana

Image source, Getty Images

Among the Latin American nations watching on tenterhooks for the final result of this long race for the White House is Cuba. 

Perhaps with more at stake than most in the region, the communist-run island has seen its relationship with Washington improve exponentially during the Obama presidency. A win for Hillary Clinton represents continuity in that process of thaw.

Image source, Getty Images

A Trump White House would mean... well, most Cubans aren't altogether sure what it would mean. At one point it looked like the Republican candidate - perhaps speaking more as a hotel businessman - supported the detente with Havana and the idea of more commerce with Cuba. 

But by the end of his campaign he'd began to suggest he would continue to support the US economic embargo against the island. Either way, ordinary people here don't like the uncertainty and are wary of anyone who might jeopardise the recent steps forward. Tonight, Cubans are waiting and watching carefully. 

Donald Trump appears to have a very slight edge in Florida at the moment but we are still waiting for some key counties - including some Democratic strongholds - to finish their counts. 

With such a tight race, there will undoubtedly be some focus on those who chose to back third-party candidates like Gary Johnson or Jill Stein. 

Image source, Getty Images

Trump appears to have scored victories in reliably Republican Indiana, Alabama, Kentucky, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Tennessee and South Carolina. 

Clinton is projected to win traditional Democratic states such as Vermont, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey. 

Polls have closed in two important states, North Carolina, which has 15 electoral college votes and Ohio, with 18, but we have no projections for them yet.

North Carolina defines the American divide. With an influx of newer, Democratic-leaning voters but poor white voters in rural areas leaning towards Trump.

Ohio is one of the most hotly expected results. The bellwether swing state has backed the winner at every presidential contest except one since World War Two.

All eyes are also on Virginia, where exit polls are pointing to a tight race, with big divides of race, gender and education dominating the vote.

Here is an hour-by-guide to the results.

Tessa Wong
BBC News, Singapore

It's morning in Asia and all eyes are on the US. On Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter which is used widely in the region, posts with the trending hashtag #USelection have already garnered 1.5 billion views.

Image source, Sina Weibo

Watch how quickly these election officials in Virginia break down the polling site once voting ends.

We're still waiting on a projected result though. 

Image source, AP

Marco Rubio, the man who was once the frontrunner to be the Republican presidential nominee, has won his race in Florida. 

Rubio, 45, had been expected to enter the private sector after losing the nomination to Trump, but he changed his mind and will now remain as the state's senator. 

ABC News projects that Donald Trump will win the solidly Republican southern state.

Image source, EPA

Image source, Getty Images

The BBC is using projections from experts at ABC News - its US broadcast partner - for the presidential race. For the House, Senate and governor races, it will use the Associated Press news agency, which gathers voting data from state and local officials.

Many other networks use AP and Edison Research, which carries out exit polls. The BBC is not conducting its own exit poll as it would at a UK general election.

Unlike most of the US networks, the BBC will not be "calling" the result of the election. It will be reporting the projections from the ABC results team, which are based on expert analysis before all the votes have been counted.

Tennessee has voted Republican since the end of the Bill Clinton era, and by a 20-point margin in 2012.  

We mentioned earlier that South Carolina, which has voted Republican in the last nine elections, could prove to be a shock after it appeared to be too close to call - but it's not any more. 

ABC News now projects the state to go to Donald Trump. 

Clinton projected to win:

New Jersey voted Democrat in 1992 after two decades of Republican wins. Obama won by 10% in 2008. The state's governor, Chris Christie, has seen his popularity plummet after he endorsed Trump for president.

Washington DC is the only non-state which has electoral college votes, and these have gone to the Democrats at every election it has ever taken part in.

Massachusetts was won by Obama by almost 30% points in 2008. It is one of America's bluest states.

Maryland has been safely Democratic since the end of the Reagan-Bush era. The state borders Washington DC, and contains the city of Baltimore.  

Delaware, a strongly blue state, has voted Democrat since 1992. Current Vice President Joe Biden first became a senator there in 1972.

Illinois isBarack Obama's political heartland, as it's the Midwestern state where he began his political career as a US senator. He won it easily in 2012 and the state has voted for Democrats since 1992. 

Rhode Island, America's tiniest state, is safely Democratic. It voted for the blue party at every election bar 1984, when Ronald Reagan won.  

Trump projected to win:

Mississippi is a safe state for the Republicans. Mississippi has gone red at every election since 1972 bar 1976, when it backed Jimmy Carter, who was the governor in the neighbouring state of Georgia.

Oklahoma has voted Republican since 1968. In 2012 Mitt Romney won 66.8% of the vote.  

ABC News projects Clinton victories in New Jersey, the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, Maryland, Delaware, Illinois and Rhode Island.

Trump is projected to win Mississippi and Oklahoma. 

Image source, AP

Police in the Californian city of Azusa say that there is an "active ongoing situation" at a house near a polling station involving a "female gunman" who is armed with a semi-automatic rifle.

Tactical teams have deployed and have taken fire from the barricaded suspect, as police try to determine if there is a second gunman on the loose. 

One person has been killed, and another three are injured.

Police add that is too early to determine what the shooter's motivation is, but believe that the incident is concentrated to the residential neighbourhood of East Los Angeles.

Image source, AP

We got the first projected results in just under an hour ago and so far there there have been no surprises. 

Hillary Clinton took the state of Vermont and Donald Trump won the states of Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia - all Republican strongholds. 

What is surprising is that we are yet to get any projections in from any of the battleground states where polls have closed - indicating there are some closes races going on in states like Georgia and North Carolina. 

Image source, Facebook

In every major US election since 2008, Facebook has offered users the chance to tell their friends “I voted”.

It’s not just idle boasting – one study from 2010, external showed that an additional 340,000 people cast ballots because of the feature.

As of 19:00 Eastern Standard Time (00:00 GMT), Facebook said that more than 7.5 million people used the “I voted” widget. 

During the last presidential election in 2012, a total of 9 million people clicked on it – and those voters skewed young, female, and Democratic.

More from about how Facebook is changing elections at BBC Trending 

The BBC's Jessica Lussenhop, external is reporting from the key state of Pennsylvania this evening. 

The Democrats have won the state in the last six presidential elections but it's in play this year, with the latest polling averages, external showing Hillary Clinton ahead by just 1.9%. 

Jessica is currently in Hazleton, a swing city in a swing state, external.