First: what is an exit poll?

As the name suggests, it’s an interview conducted as voters leave the polling station. They’re meant to showcase voter attitudes and can help illustrate the full picture of how a president-elect won post-election - and who turned out to support them.

Think of these polls as living, breathing measurements: as more voters weigh in, the numbers will change. This also means you shouldn’t take the polls too seriously.

Another exit poll consideration this time around is the pandemic.

A record number of voters have cast their ballots early or via post. So the folks we’ll be getting from direct exit polls will almost certainly skew older and more Republican, analysts say.

But pollsters will also be ringing up those who have voted by post, though it may take a bit longer for those results to filter in.

We'll have more data coming this evening from across the country, but here's an early look at what US voters care most about this election cycle.

A third of voters said the economy was the most important issue in deciding their vote for president, according to preliminary exit poll data from Edison Research.

Next on the list: racial inequality, which two in ten said was their top issue.

The pandemic ranked third among the key issues, with 18% of voters saying the virus mattered most in their decision.

Laura Trevelyan
BBC World News America presenter

Turnout continues to smash records in the 2020 election.

The early voting guru, Professor Michael McDonald of the University of Florida, says that Oregon became the fifth US state to exceed the total number of votes cast in 2016.

Texas, Hawaii, Montana, Washington and now Oregon are seeing enormous voter enthusiasm.

Texas is a competitive state with a somewhat competitive Senate race and Montana has a closely watched Senate contest, too.

Hawaii, Oregon and Washington are not considered battlegrounds, but - just as I found when I voted in the definitely-not-a-swing-state of New York - people wish to be heard in this election.

More than 100m Americans voted early - and millions more are having their say right now.

Image source, Reuters

Joe Biden has told reporters he is "hopeful" as voting continues across the US.

However, the Democratic nominee would not elaborate on his plans for if a result is not declared on election night.

"There’s just so much in play right now … We’ll see," Biden said from his home state of Delaware, after returning from an appearance in the key state of Pennsylvania.

"If there’s something to talk about tonight, I’ll talk about it. If not, I’ll wait til the votes are counted the next day."

This election is Biden's third bid for the White House

Find out more about him in our profile here.

James Clayton
North America technology reporter

At one polling centre I went to today in Las Vegas, people told me they had waited an hour and a half to vote.

In the desert sun, with no shade for those queuing up, people were handing out water. Some had come prepared and brought umbrellas.

Everyone I spoke to said they would wait as long as it took to vote.

This morning Clark County, the county that holds Las Vegas, said they’ve had technical problems. Some of polling stations opened up late.

Voters told me there were often queues at voting stations here, though, so it was hard to tell whether the long waits had anything to do with those problems.

Polls close in Nevada at 22:00 ET (03:00GMT).

Reality Check
Dan Isaacs

In an interview with the Fox News channel this morning, Trump reeled off a list of his achievements in office, some we’ve fact-checked before and found misleading, including this one.

On Fox, he claimed his administration “saved two million people” from dying with coronavirus, but that's not accurate.

The figure 2m was mentioned in a study published in March by Imperial College in London that modeled the case for an “unmitigated epidemic”.

The study describes 2.2m deaths from Covid-19 in the US as what would happen "in the [unlikely] absence of any control measures or spontaneous changes in individual behaviour".

So far, there have been more than 230,000 Covid-19 deaths reported deaths in the US.

You can check out some our other fact-checks of both presidential candidates here.

BBC World Service

Rather than a commentary on the race for the White House, the Chinese media has been focusing on recent civil unrest and the health crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic. BBC correspondent Zhaoyin Feng reports:

BBC Radio 5 Live

Image source, Isaiah Williams

BBC Radio 5 Live’s Anna Foster has been in Cleveland, Ohio, talking to voters on polling day.

Isaiah Williams is an artist who was commissioned by Joe Biden to paint a mural of vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

“We thought it was so important to spread light, not only on a woman running for vice-president, but also a person of colour who so many young girls can look up to,” he said.

Isaiah said he thought Donald Trump did not understand the “common person”.

“I doubt he ever had to ask anyone for money to put gas in their car, I doubt he ever had to catch a bus, I doubt he ever had to do anything that everyday ordinary people had to do,” Isaiah said.

Trump supporter Terry Crumpton runs a Cleveland web-based news and TV show.

He told Anna: “I just think [Trump] has low tolerance and patience for people that want to depend on the government. And I’m kind of like that. I got low tolerance for people who want to depend on someone else.

“When Donald Trump says something, he usually does it. We might not like how he says it, but it ends up happening.”

Listen to BBC Radio 5 Live's election coverage on BBC Sounds.

With the country on course for the highest voter turnout in over a century, some parts of the country have seen long queues on election day.

Footage from Calvert County, Maryland and Oklahoma City show people joining long lines to cast their ballots, although some of this may be down to increased safety measures introduced due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Image source, EPA

Polls in the US will start to close in just under an hour - at 23:00GMT or 18:00ET. These are in parts of Indiana and Kentucky.

The first key swing-state (places where the race could determine who becomes president) to close its polls is Georgia, at midnight GMT or 19:00 ET. We should also see the state reporting its first results then.

Half an hour later it's North Carolina at 00:30GMT or 19:30 ET, where a large number of early in-person voters means projections could come quickly.

Read our guide on what to look out for tonight.

Michelle Fleury
BBC World News Correspondent in Philadelphia PA

In a strip mall in Bensalem, in eastern Pennsylvania (one of the toughest battleground states this US presidential election) there is a shop specialising in Donald Trump merchandise.

According to the owner, Michael Domenico, anything with the President’s name on it flies off the shelves.

Business has been brisk in the run up the election. His shop is located in hotly contested Bucks county, which Mr Trump narrowly lost in 2016 - but where enthusiasm for the President runs high.

BBC World Service

What does it take to become a leader? From deep in the Maasai lands of Kenya to high in the mountains of Tibet, we talk to three traditional leaders on what they have learnt in their time as leaders of their communities.

Stephen Oruma Ole Nkaru from Kenya, Ven. Gyetrul Jigme Rinpoche from Tibet and John Rice, Zahgausgai Mukwa from Wasauksing First Nation in Canada share their wisdom.

Image source, TASS via Getty Images

If you're just joining us, welcome to our live coverage of the 2020 US election between President Donald Trump and his Democratic rival, Joe Biden. Here's a recap of the main events so far today:

• The FBI has launched an investigation after reports in parts of the country of automated calls telling people not to vote today. Officials have said voters should ignore the calls and that voting is continuing as normal
• Results in North Carolina are set to be delayed by at least 45 minutes after voting at four locations was delayed this morning, leading officials to extend opening hours at the sites

• Democratic candidate Joe Biden is currently ahead in the polls, although the battle is much closer in a number of key states, which could sway the course of the election
• Both candidates have continued to travel throughout election day. Trump has visited RNC staff in Arlington, Virginia, while Biden returned to his childhood hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania
• The US looks set for its highest voter turnout in over a century, although varying rules across different states mean some will not finish counting ballots on election night

Pramila Krishnan
BBC Tamil Service correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Residents of Thulasendrapuram village in Tamil Nadu, southern India, gathered at a temple this morning and offered special prayers for the victory of vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

This village of 5,000 people has been watching updates in the US election for the last two months. Reason: Harris's ancestors lived here, and she visited the temple herself when she was five years old.

At the entrance stands a board with a good luck message. Some 50 villagers were present in the early morning at the Dharmasastha temple, which is the family deity temple of Harris's ancestors.

Though her family moved from this village to Chennai city and then to the US, her relatives continued to send donations for the temple's renovation.

Villagers were eager to check out one name on the walls of the temple, which says the vice-presidential candidate donated Rs 5,000 (£67) herself in 2014.

Donald Trump stopped by a Republican campaign office earlier today, where he thanked staff for their election efforts before quipping they needed to "get immediately back to work".

He also weighed in on whether he had prepared concession or acceptance speeches.

The result is typically called on the night of the election, when enough votes are usually in to confirm a winner.

In 2016, Donald Trump took to the stage in New York at about 03:00 local time to give his victory speech in front of a crowd of jubilant supporters.

But it’s important to remember that this is a year like no other.

Officials are already warning that we may have to wait longer - possibly days, even weeks - for the result this year because of a surge in postal ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The last time the result was not clear within a few hours was in 2000, when the winner was not confirmed until a Supreme Court ruling was made a month later.

Click here to read more about why the result could be delayed

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Florida. The mere mention of the state when talking about politics brings smiles to Republican faces and sends shivers down Democratic spines.

Florida is where liberal dreams are broken. It's the place where, in what was otherwise a Democratic wave election of 2018, the party narrowly lost the governorship and an incumbent Senate seat. It's where, in 2000, 537 votes delivered the White House to Republican George W Bush, instead of Al Gore.

For Democrats, Florida is like an unreliable friend - never around when needed. The last four times the party won the presidency, they could have lost Florida and still prevailed. But in two of the last three Democratic defeats, winning Florida would have meant taking the White House.

Fast forward to this year, and Florida is once again an electoral battleground that could decide the presidency. Polls, as they always seem to do here, show the state is close. And if the overall race is tight, Florida - with its 29 electoral votes - could once again be decisive.

Read more here.

The FBI has launched an investigation after reports of automated phone calls urging people to stay at home emerged on election day.

A senior Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency official described the calls, which have been reported in a number of states, as "a voter intimidation, voter suppression tactic". However, the official also noted that similar incidents occur at every election.

In New York, Attorney General Letitia James said her office was actively investigating, external reports of phonecalls to residents.

“Voting is a cornerstone of our democracy,” she said in a statement. “Attempts to hinder voters from exercising their right to cast their ballots are disheartening, disturbing, and wrong. What’s more is that it is illegal, and it will not be tolerated."

Dana Nessel, the attorney-general for Michigan, said she had received reports of robocalls to residents in Flint, which falsely claimed that people should vote tomorrow because of long queues.

Another message posted on Facebook by the secretary of state in Kansas confirmed reports of voters receiving calls, external and told residents: "Disregard these calls. If you have not already voted, today is the day!"

There have been a number of different reported automated calls, with Reuters news agency reporting that one campaign did not explicitly mention voting.

Chelsea Bailey
Digital producer, BBC News, Florida

Image source, Rod Macleod

Angela Davidson was one of the first to arrive at her local polling place in Nassau County, Florida this morning, Trump flags billowing from the back of her truck.

She tells me she’s spent months canvassing for President Trump, leaving behind handmade yard signs and literature throughout her community. Now, she stands 150 feet from the nearest polling site, blaring ‘God Bless America’ and praying it was all worth it.

Amelia Crane and her 16-year-old son, Samuel, also joined Angela after casting a vote for President Trump. Samuel has missed a few classes today, but his mom says showing him democracy in action is worth it.

Image source, Rod Macleod

“We love President Trump,” Crane says. “He’s standing in the gap between the collapse of society and the majority of Americans who don’t want that.”

Before we leave, Angela reads aloud a prayer she’d sent to friends and fellow Trump supporters this morning, asking God to bless the president and the country. As she finishes, they all say “Amen.”

Tara McKelvey
BBC News, Washington

Hundreds are expected to arrive at the White House tonight for an election-night party, and men and women are heading inside the residence for their shift.

I saw one man, already wearing his black tie, and others carrying garment bags, slung over their shoulders. They were all wearing masks.

People have expressed concern about the virus and its potential to spread here on the compound, once again, at the party.

A celebration in the White House Rose Garden for Judge Amy Coney Barrett in September is believed to have turned into a “super-spreader event”, with several people coming down the virus afterwards.

Tonight, though, the event will look different.

It will take place inside the White House instead of outdoors, which could increase the danger of exposure to the virus.

All of the guests will receive a Covid test before they join the festivities, and they are hoping for the best. Stay tuned.