Image source, EPA

More than 99 million Americans have voted early in the presidential election - either by post or in person, according to the latest figures from the US Elections Project, external.

This far surpasses the total number of early ballots cast in the 2016 election, in which 138 million Americans voted overall.

Election observers believe the surge in early votes could indicate a high - possibly record - turnout for this year’s election (read more on this here). The increase has been driven at least in part by concerns over visiting polling stations in person during the coronavirus pandemic.

Turnout has hovered around the 60% mark in recent presidential elections. In 2016, it was 58.1% of the country’s voting-eligible population.

This year, the largest number of early votes were cast in the states of California (12 million), Texas (9.7 million) and Florida (8.9 million). Polls have shown that Democrats favour postal ballots more than Republicans, which could bode well for Biden.

Trump has been touting a "red wave" of in-person voters on election day. He may need them.

Image source, Getty Images

A federal judge in Texas has rejected a bid by Republicans to throw out some 127,000 votes cast at drive-through voting sites in the Houston area.

Harris County, which includes Houston, set up drive-through polling sites to accommodate voters during the coronavirus pandemic.

But a group of state Republicans accused Harris County Clerk Chris Hollins, a Democrat, of acting illegally in allowing this.

In a written order, US District Judge Andrew Hanen said drive-through early voting was permissible under Texas law.

“To disenfranchise over 120,000 voters who voted as instructed the day before the scheduled election does not serve the public interest,” he said.

But he added the law does not allow movable structures - such as the tents that house most of the county’s drive-through voting centres - to be used as polling places on election day.

Reacting to the ruling on Twitter, Hollins said he could not “in good faith encourage voters to cast their votes in tents if that puts their votes at risk”.

He said he would close nine out of the 10 drive-through voting sites on election day so that votes might not later get thrown out for not being cast in “buildings”.

The Democrats have won Harris County in recent years.

Image source, Reuters

The US presidential election is a colossal exercise in democratic participation.

With 50 states spanning nine different timezones, polling stations across the country will open at different points throughout election day.

Voting is already under way in some states, including in New Hampshire, as we reported earlier.

The first polls to open are in eastern states such as Vermont, where voters will cast their ballots in close-to-freezing and possibly snowy conditions from 05:00 EST (10:00 GMT).

By contrast, the sun will be shining with temperatures in the 20Cs for in-person voting in Hawaii, which opens its polls later on from 12:00 EST (17:00 GMT).

Here is a partial list of scheduled opening times in some states and the District of Colombia:

• 06:00 EST (11:00 GMT): Connecticut, Indiana , Kentucky, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Virginia
• 07:00 EST (12:00 GMT): Delaware, District of Colombia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina
• 09:00 EST (14:00 GMT): Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming
• 10:00 EST (15:00 GMT): California, Idaho, Nevada

For a full list of poll opening and closing times by state, check out this interactive map by Ballotpedia, external.

Image source, Reuters

Singer Lady Gaga joined Joe Biden on the campaign trail in western Pennsylvania on the eve of election day.

“Vote for Joe. He’s a good person,” she told Biden supporters, flashing a peace sign and sporting a bejewelled facemask with 'VOTE' on it.

The star’s name was met with boos at a Donald Trump rally earlier in the day. The Republican president told attendees: "I could tell you stories about Lady Gaga."

Watch the video below for clips of both events.

Read more: Do celebrity endorsements actually make an impact?

It's been a marathon few days for the candidates - the finale of a marathon year.

President Trump held five campaign rallies in four states on Monday, returning to Washington at 02:35 local time this morning. He is expected to spend most of Tuesday at the White House.

His opponent Joe Biden is scheduled to spend election day in Scranton, Pennsylvania, his childhood home, and in the Democratic stronghold of Philadelphia.

Image source, EPA

Some business owners in the US are boarding up windows as they brace for unrest following the election.

Retailers Saks 5th Avenue and Nordstrom, and pharmacy chain CVS were among the biggest firms taking precautions.

Walmart last week said it was temporarily removing guns and ammunition from display in thousands of its stores in the United States, citing concerns of "civil unrest". A day later, however, it reversed the decision.

Police said Rodeo Drive, the famous shopping destination in Beverly Hills, California, would also be closed on Tuesday.

Concerns the election will be contested have weighed on financial markets. Read more about that here

A former communications director for the Republican National Committee says he has cast his ballot for Joe Biden, tweeting that he was "Proud to vote country over party. Proud to vote for @JoeBiden, external"

Ryan Mahoney, who was the RNC’s comms director during the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019, also tweeted a ballot photo.

In the final hours of the campaign, Donald Trump and his rival Joe Biden offered starkly different visions of America.

On Monday, Biden campaigned in Pennsylvania and Ohio, while Trump toured the voting battlegrounds of Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Trump delivered his final remarks at midnight in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he made his last appearance before the election in 2016. His speech touched on familiar themes, warning that Biden would ban fracking, lock down the economy and move American jobs abroad.

The president assured supporters that “we’re doing well all over” and predicted a “red wave”.

"We're going to win the state of Michigan so easily," he said. “We want to do it just like last time, but let's give me a little bit more margin.”

Image source, Reuters

Biden, meanwhile, delivered his last address to supporters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a state analysts believe could be key to the outcome of the election.

Framing the vote as a "battle for the soul of America", the former vice-president argued that he will heal the country and do what Trump has failed to do - control the US coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re done with the chaos, we’re done with the tweets, the anger, the hate, the failure, the irresponsibility,” said Biden, branding Trump a divisive and dangerous president.

Now, it is up to voters to decide.

Image source, Reuters

Zhaoyin Feng
BBC Chinese, Washington DC

In the US, Biden and Trump have argued over who is best suited to lead America while withstanding challenges from China. But from Beijing’s perspective, the biggest story in this election isn’t who will lead the US in the next four years, but whether American democracy has been weakened.

Media in China have largely refrained from extensive coverage of the US election, as Beijing wants to avoid accusations of election interference. State media’s coverage tends to focus on the messiness of the electoral process and the severe public health crisis in America, instead of the presidential horse-race.

In the past few months, civil unrest and political chaos in the US have been prime propaganda materials in China, where the government is eager to prove the superiority of its political system over democracies.

For the 1.4 billion people living in China, access to foreign media is mostly blocked. But there’s no shortage of mockery of the two US presidential candidates on Chinese social media Weibo.

Many have been entertained by the American political soap opera, while some are trying to figure out where US-China relations are heading in the next four years, especially whether the two countries will ratchet up their trade war again.

A Weibo user writes: “From the trade war and Huawei (restrictions), to the election and the pandemic, it has been so tiring to pay attention to all these topics lately.”

People around the world are hoping to have some clarity after tonight, but it may not come quite as soon as that...

Image source, Getty Images

Americans are facing a choice between two candidates with very different political offerings. So what do they actually stand for?

• Donald Trump’s pitch is to revive the economy, boost jobs, protect US trade interests, and to continue with his hard-line stance on immigration
• Joe Biden is pledging to create new economic opportunities for workers, restore environmental protections and healthcare rights, and promote international alliances

We've looked in depth at their positions on eight key issues. Click here to read about Biden or here to read about Trump

Image source, Reuters

Joe Biden has pocketed his first election victory - by winning all five votes of a small New Hampshire town that's always quick to declare its result.

The outcome in Dixville Notch on the US-Canada border was revealed just after midnight on Tuesday, marking 60 years since the tradition began.

Les Otten, who described himself as a lifelong Republican, cast the first ballot for Biden. "I don't agree with him on a lot of issues, but I believe it's time to find what unites us, not what divides us," he said.

"My vote today is meant to send a message to my fellow Republicans that our party can find its way back. It's time to return to the values that our conservative government has held historically dear."

Meanwhile in Millsfield, 12 miles (20 km) to the south, President Trump won 16 votes to Biden's five.

Election observers often take note of the two tiny New Hampshire communities, but Dixville Notch doesn’t always vote in line with the national outcome. In 2016, the town opted for then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in the electoral college.

A third community with midnight voting, Hart's Location, suspended the tradition this election because of coronavirus concerns.

The coronavirus pandemic has been central to this election. And in the run-up to the vote both candidates have discussed the future role of leading infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci.

Donald Trump, who has repeatedly clashed with Fauci over his approach to Covid-19, told supporters he might fire the expert after the election - but Joe Biden said that if he was elected, he would "hire" Dr Fauci.

It's important to note that Dr Fauci is a career civil servant, so it would be quite difficult for Trump to fire him the way he has his political appointees.

Here's what both candidates had to say:

President Trump has tweeted an unfounded claim that a Supreme Court ruling allowing Pennsylvania to accept mail-in ballots received three days after election day will lead to "violence in the streets".

Counting ballots after election day, especially those sent by post, is standard procedure in the US. But the president has repeatedly questioned its legitimacy.

"The Supreme Court decision on voting in Pennsylvania is a VERY dangerous one," Trump tweeted. He added, without evidence, that the high court's ruling "will allow rampant and unchecked cheating and will undermine our entire systems of laws”.

The tweet was swiftly slapped with a warning label by Twitter, which said the contents of it “might be misleading about an election or other civic process”.

On the eve of the election, Twitter said it would tag misleading information, external on Wednesday, including premature claims of victory for either candidate.

Billions of dollars spent, dozens of candidates, two nominees, one pandemic.

What started with a little-known congressman in the summer of 2017 ended as the most expensive US presidential election of all time.

It featured 26 candidates for the Democratic Party nomination, the first black and Asian-American woman vice-presidential nominee, and some other historic firsts.

With voting day finally upon us, let's take a look back...

Image source, Reuters

With only hours to go until election day voting begins in the US, here’s a look at the latest news you need to know:

• As in 2016, Donald Trump held his final campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, telling supporters there he was going to win the state “so easily”
• His Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, was also confident of victory as he spent the final hours of campaigning in Pennsylvania. He told voters at a drive-in rally: “I have a feeling we’re coming together for a big win tomorrow.”
• Some 99.6 million people are estimated to have voted early, according to the US Elections Project
• The first polls close at 23:00GMT (18:00EST) in the eastern US, but will be open until 06:00GMT Wednesday in Alaska
• Twitter has flagged a tweet by Donald Trump as potentially misleading, after he said a Supreme Court decision to let Pennsylvania count mail-in ballots that arrive after voting day would prompt "violence in the streets"

Image source, Reuters

Hello and thank-you for joining our live coverage. We’ll be bringing you all the latest updates as Americans cast their votes in the 59th presidential election and decide whether Donald Trump or Joe Biden will win the White House.

News and analysis will be brought to you from our teams in London and Washington DC, as well as our correspondents on the ground.