We asked our voter panel of Democrats (D), Republicans (R) and independents (I) to describe their current state of mind in one word...

• Keri (R - TEXAS): Hopeful
• Andrew (I - MICHIGAN): Suspenseful
• Gavin (R - GEORGIA): Optimistic
• Rab (D - OHIO): Frustrated
• Simon (I - MINNESOTA): Surprised!
• Andrew (R - NEW MEXICO): Hopeful
• Deanna (R - KANSAS): Coddiwomple
• Taylor (R - TEXAS): Suspenseful
• Jessica (D - PENNSYLVANIA): Scared
• Shloka (D - NEW YORK): Restless
• A’Kayla (D - SOUTH CAROLINA): Repulsed
• Lesley (I - FLORIDA): Optimistic
• Brian (R - KENTUCKY): Sleepy

And for those you aren't familiar with English slang, Coddiwomple roughly translates to “travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination”.

Learn more about our voter panel.

Exit polls show that the electorate is growing less white, with six percent fewer white voters than in 2016.

Trump supporters are four times more likely to say the economy was what tipped the scales in the president's favour. Biden backers were more likely to cite the pandemic and inequality.

Catch up on the latest results here:

Results and exit poll in maps and charts

Image source, Reuters

We've now reached the West Coast, and both candidates are projected to have ticked over the 100-vote mark in the electoral college. Joe Biden with 192 and Donald Trump with 114. The magic number is 270.

But the minutes are turning into hours as we're watching some knife-edge races that remain too early to project. There have been no major upsets so far but attention is starting to turn to the mid-western states.

Here's how the candidates are looking:

• Joe Biden is projected to win 14 states, plus Washington DC. Those states are Vermont, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Colorado, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Illinois, California, Oregon, Washington state, and Washington DC
• Donald Trump is projected to win 17 states. Those are Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Tennessee, West Virginia, Arkansas, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alabama, South Carolina, Louisiana, Nebraska and Nebraska 3rd District, Utah, Missouri, Kansas, Wyoming, and Mississippi

Watch the ticker at the top of this page for more changes as the night goes on.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

New Jersey voters overwhelmingly turned out in support of legalised recreational cannabis, according to AP results.

The measure means the state is to become the 12th with legal weed. It passed with about 67% of the vote and with the support of all 21 counties in the state.

Minutes after New Jersey was called, Arizona was also projected to pass a measure legalising cannabis for adult use.

Voters in two other states will be deciding whether or not to legalise cannabis tonight. Montana and South Dakota still have to report their results.

The projections for California with its huge 55 electoral college votes are in. As expected, Joe Biden is predicted to win the state. It was once a solid Republican state but has voted Democrat since 1992.

Oregon and Washington are both projected to vote for Biden too.

Oregon, in America's Pacific Northwest, has voted Democrat since 1988. It's been a focal point of anti-police protests this year, an issue that's become a major dividing line during the election.

And Washington, which is America's most north-western state, has voted Democrat by a fairly large margin in every election since 1988 (though in 2016 four of its electors were "faithless" and didn't vote for Hillary Clinton as pledged).

Excitement is building among Republicans in our voter panel text group as Florida looks good for Trump.

Jim (R - Indiana) : “Are you seeing this? Trump is winning urban areas in Florida +4% and Hispanics +13%".

Gavin (R - Georgia): “Trump is going to win FL and NC! Feeling great at this moment!”

Eliana Girard (R - Florida): “We’re watching at Club 45 party with 500 people.”

Learn more about our voter panel.

Two more states now projected for Donald Trump.

Kansas is predicted to vote for Donald Trump. In the last 80 years it has only voted once for the Democrats, in 1964.

And Wyoming too is projected for the president. The Cowboy State is traditionally a Republican stronghold. In the last 70 years, only one Democrat – Lyndon B Johnson – has won a presidential election here.

Image source, Getty Images

California is the most populous state in the US, and carries the most electoral college votes, at 55.

The Democrats have long counted on California as a more or less guaranteed source of electoral college votes.

Yet it hasn't always been a Democratic stronghold.

California has voted Democrat every election since 1992, but nine out of the ten elections until that point went Republican. Richard Nixon began his political career in California, while another Republican president, Ronald Reagan, was governor.

The state's move towards the Democrats coincided with a growth in the Latino and Asian populations in California.

In the early 1990s the Republicans pushed through the controversial Proposition 187, a law that denied basic services to illegal immigrants, something often cited as a reason for Republican decline.

Nowadays Democrats are utterly dominant at state level, so anything other than a huge win for Biden in California would be an immense shock.

Polls close at 23:00 EST (04:00 GMT).

Polls are about to close in California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington.

California, with its 55 electoral college votes, can be counted on to vote Democrat, as will Oregon and Washington.

Idaho has long been called the most Republican state in the country due to the record amount of state officeholders who are members of the party.

Polls will close in Hawaii at 00:00 US eastern time (05:00 GMT) and in Alaska one hour later.

Laura Trevelyan
BBC World News America presenter

With Republican Cory Gardener projected to lose in Colorado to former Governor John Hickenlooper, Democrats have picked up one Senate seat so far tonight.

Currently Republicans control the Senate 53-47 so Democrats have a way to go if they hope to flip the chamber.

Despite Democratic hopes, incumbent Doug Jones has been projected to lose his Alabama Senate seat to former football coach Tommy Tuberville, as we just reported.

The party is still eyeing races in North Carolina, Maine, Arizona, Iowa and Georgia - Arizona is considered the most likely gain for them. There, astronaut Mark Kelly has been running a well funded campaign against Martha McSally.

Control of the Senate is crucial for advancing the agenda of the president, as Donald Trump showed when he confirmed three justices to the Supreme Court.

Illinois is projected to vote for Joe Biden.

The Midwestern state, which includes Chicago, is Barack Obama’s political stomping ground, and has voted Democrat in every presidential race since 1992.

Missouri is projected to vote for Donald Trump.

Home to the city of St Louis, the state has voted Republican in the last five presidential elections. Trump beat Hillary Clinton by nearly 19 percentage points in 2016.

Image source, Getty Images

Doug Jones, the Democrat who defeated Alabama Judge Roy Moore in a contentious election marred by claims of sexual misconduct, is projected to lose his Senate seat.

The seat will go to Tommy Tuberville, a political newcomer who formerly coached American football at Auburn University. The Republican's campaign strategy was to run as closely to Trump as he could get, declaring last year: "God sent Donald Trump to us."

Our North America reporter Anthony Zurcher has this analysis:

Doug Jones' victory in a Senate special election in traditionally conservative Alabama was the big surprise of 2017. His loss to Tuberville was the opposite. Despite being the incumbent, the Democrat’s loss was simply political gravity reasserting itself. As expected the Democratic path to taking control of the Senate just got a little more difficult.

The Alabama race was one of our five key contests to watch tonight.

Image source, Getty Images

Madison Cawthorn, the 25-year old inspirational speaker who addressed the Republican convention this summer, is projected to win the North Carolina seat vacated by top Trump aide Mark Meadows, according to the AP.

Cawthorn tweeted moments after the projection was announced.

Cawthorn, who is seen as a rising star within the party, found himself in hot water earlier this summer after pictures emerged of his 2017 trip to a home used by Adolf Hitler. He referred to the Nazi leader on Instagram as "the Fuhrer" (he also described him as "supreme evil") and said the vacation was on his "bucket list".

Cawthorn will be the youngest member of Congress, and the first born in the 1990s. Another star young lawmaker, Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was born in 1989 and is 31, in case you were wondering.

Another state projected now for Joe Biden. New Hampshire is predicted to vote for the Democrat.

The New England state voted for George W Bush in 2000 but has otherwise delivered wins for the Democrats in every race since 1992.

Three more states have been projected to vote for Donald Trump. They are Louisiana, Nebraska and Utah.

None are big surprises, as he won all of them in 2016.

The southern state of Louisiana has voted Republican in the last five presidential elections, after backing Bill Clinton twice in the 1990s.

Trump won Utah with 46% of the vote in 2016.

And Nebraska is one of just two states that has the option to split its electoral college votes - in 2016 all five went to Donald Trump.

Philadelphia election officials say they are taking a break from processing mail-in ballots for the night, and will post updated information next at 09:00 EDT (14:00 GMT).

So far 76,000 ballots have been counted, out of approximately 350,000 cast by mail.

This is significant, as Biden voters are much more likely to vote by mail than Trump supporters. Trump has called mail-in voting fraudulent, despite evidence that it is quite safe.

According to a Philadelphia election official, external, they're receiving about 16 Democratic mail-in ballots for every one Republican postal ballot.

"Those first 75,000 [votes] are going to skew 16 Democratic voters for every one Republican voter, at least that was the last time we looked," the official said at a news conference.

Philadelphia is in the all-important battleground state of Pennsylvania.

Image source, Getty Images

Trump ally Lindsey Graham has held on to his Senate seat in South Carolina, according to reporting from the Associated Press, Fox News and the New York Times.

The veteran politician appeared to be in the fight of his political life this year, and was up against an opponent who had raised record amounts.

It was an unexpectedly close race for a conservative state where Graham has been senator for close to two decades.

Heading into election night, Republicans hold a narrow, three-seat advantage in the Senate. This loss will disappoint Democrats looking to snatch away that majority.

Find out more about the Senate races to watch.

New Mexico is projected to go to Joe Biden.

Once a swing state, it has leaned heavily towards the Democrats in recent races. Hillary Clinton won the border state in 2016, aided by increasing support from Latino voters.

Laura Kuenssberg
Political editor

Image source, Getty Images

"They call him Britain Trump."

In Donald Trump's world, perhaps there was no greater compliment for Boris Johnson than saying that the prime minister was, well, just like him. And this was how he greeted Johnson's ascent to power.

While both leaders enjoy casting themselves as outsiders, that caricatured comparison is far from a complete picture.

But as the world waits to find out whether the president will defy the polls and stay in the White House, or if Joe Biden will get to move in, it's worth wondering for a moment who the UK government would rather have holding the key.

For one senior politician with experience dealing with Trump's White House and Johnson's Downing Street, it's a simple equation: "It's short term, versus long term".

Read more about what this election means for the UK here.