Image source, Getty Images

More than 500 miles south-west of New Hampshire, President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris are holding the first joint campaign rally in their 2024 re-election bid.

The two Democrats and their respective spouses are in Manassas, Virginia, marking the 51st anniversary this week of the Supreme Court's Roe v Wade decision, which granted abortion access nationwide.

Reproductive rights has been a top issue motivating voters, particularly Democrats and women, since the decision was overturned by the court's current conservative majority nearly two years ago.

Democrats are seeking to further energise their base over the issue in this election, with the Biden campaign warning in commercials and events that Republicans will seek a national abortion ban if they regain power.

"One does not have to abandon their faith or deeply-held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling her what to do with her body," Harris - the White House's top abortion messenger - says to raucous applause from the women gathered behind her. "This is in fact a healthcare crisis and there is nothing about this moment that is hypothetical."

Sam Cabral
US reporter

Image source, EPA

Amid a blizzard last week, fewer than 15% of Iowa's registered Republicans voted in the state's caucus. But that is not likely to be the case tonight.

New Hampshire's secretary of state - its elections chief - is predicting about 322,000 registered Republicans will cast ballots., external

If that happens, it would shatter the previous record for the state, when more than 300,000 Democratic voters showed up in 2020 for their party primary.

But while Republicans have a somewhat competitive primary, with Nikki Haley backed by the state's governor and polling well with independent voters seeking to edge out Donald Trump, the Democratic primary tonight is akin to a beauty contest, with President Joe Biden's name not on the ballot and no delegates awarded in tonight's election.

That is reflected in Secretary of State David Scanlan's prediction that only 88,000 Democrats - or about one-third of registered Democrats in the state - will turn out for their party's primary.

Phil McCausland
Reporting from New Hampshire

Donald Trump has flooded New Hampshire with surrogates over the past few days, and it has been no different today.

It appears the former president wants to show a united Republican front on the ground here, and he has certainly accomplished the task.

He's sent out droves of surrogates - including many former rivals for the Republican nomination - to speak to voters and the media.

The BBC has seen biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, the former president's son Eric Trump, Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake and many others.

Nikki Haley does not have as deep a bench to draw on, which has made it difficult for her to get much-needed attention from the media and prospective voters. Nevertheless, her campaign has maintained a rosy outlook.

"We feel really good about turn out particularly," Mark Harris, a lead strategist on Haley's team, said. "But we'll see what happens tonight."

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Emma Vardy
Reporting from New Hampshire

Image source, Getty Images

Nikki Haley’s team are optimistic enough voters have gone to the polls and that will benefit her.

Mark Harris from her super PAC (political action committee - which raises and spends money to promote candidates) says: "We feel really good about turnout particularly, but we’ll see what happens tonight".

"We’re going to be able to fight through and tell Nikki’s story in South Carolina," he adds.

"If I told you two months ago Nikki was going to get 20% in Iowa, and be on track to get 40% or more here we would have been ecstatic about that."

“Nikki’s been clear in her interviews today that voters want a choice, and this is not going to be a coronation.”

Phil McCausland
Reporting from New Hampshire

South Carolina Senator Tim Scott - a former Donald Trump rival - stopped at a polling site here in Raymond, New Hampshire, just a moment ago.

He spoke to a group of Trump supporters who thanked him for backing their preferred candidate and congratulated him on his recent engagement.

"Donald Trump is about the everyday American, who needs to believe in their future," Scott said. "Donald Trump makes that happen, and I support Donald Trump because I love America."

Scott - who has been rumoured as a potential running mate if Trump wins the Republican presidential nomination - railed against Democrats and their immigration policies and shared his concerns about the cost of living. That is a key motivation of voters here.

After posing with a few babies and putting his autograph on Maga hats, various Trump signs and campaign flags, Scott told me that Nikki Haley won't fare any better in South Carolina - the next Republican primary which will be held in February.

"It's going to be a big win for Trump," he said.

Donald Trump has made a surprise visit to a polling station in Londonderry, New Hampshire alongside his ally Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Speaking to voters, he bragged about his standing in the state.

“They’re going to all vote for me again," he said.

"I think that Biden is the worst president in the history of this country,” he said. “But we’re gonna all come back. They’re all coming back. And I think you see that here," he added.

Asked about Haley pledging to stay in to Super Tuesday, he says: "I don't care if she stays in, let her do whatever she wants, it doesn't matter."

Polling from yesterday suggests Trump remains the clear front-runner, expanding his margin over Nikki Haley after Ron DeSantis dropped out of the race on Sunday.

Madeline Halpert
US Reporter

Image source, Reuters

Experts have told the BBC that Donald Trump could land a knock-out blow on the Republican primary race in New Hampshire tonight, less than a week after he steamrolled his opponents in Iowa.

"Let's be clear, his brand is winning," said Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist in the state.

Recent polling suggests Trump still holds a substantial lead over Nikki Haley, his closest - and now, only - rival in the contest.

The former president's New Hampshire rallies have seen hundreds of voters line up in freezing conditions to hear him speak.

Haley, a former United Nations ambassador, has focused her campaign efforts on New Hampshire.

She has said that New Hampshire will "correct" Iowa's vote - a claim her opponents used in attack ads. A former South Carolina governor, she added she hopes her state then "brings it home" with its upcoming primary on 24 February.

Time will tell whether that strategy works.

Her third-place finish in Iowa behind Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis may have stalled her momentum, some experts say.

And if Trump performs as well as he did in Iowa, it could mark the end of the road for Haley and a presidential nomination for Trump.

Image source, Getty Images

A federal appeals court has declined to reconsider a gag order limiting what Donald Trump can say about people involved in the federal case charging him with trying to overturn the 2020 election.

The court found that some of Trump’s public comments “pose a significant and imminent threat” to the federal case.

The order applies to the former president's public statements about potential witnesses, prosecutors, and court staff involved in the case.

His legal team argued that the restrictions violated his freedom of speech, but the court denied a request that it reconsider its earlier decision.

The only option remaining to Trump is to appeal the ruling at the US Supreme Court.

Carl Nasman
Reporting from New Hampshire

While most of the attention in New Hampshire has been on the Republican primary, Democrats are also going to the polls today. And it’s an unusual ballot to say the least.

The Democratic party decided last year to strip New Hampshire of its first in the nation primary status, giving it to South Carolina instead.

But New Hampshire’s state constitution requires that it go first, so the state is forging ahead.

Today’s Democratic primary won’t award any delegates and the sitting president isn’t even on the ballot (although Joe Biden’s supporters are staging a write-in campaign).

But the vote is still being seen as meaningful test of his strength amid low approval ratings and growing dissatisfaction around his re-election strategy.

Biden is being challenged by several people in his own party, including Democratic Congressman Dean Phillips, who claims he doesn’t stand a chance against Donald Trump come November.

He likens reselecting the president, who he describes as a "weak candidate" and unelectable, to Hillary Clinton's unsuccessful run as Trump's opponent in 2016.

"It is unforgivable and shameful to do the same thing knowingly this year. And I think most Americans understand that democracy thrives with competition, and it dies with coronations."

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from New Hampshire

Image source, Getty Images

An eccentric performance artist named Vermin Supreme is on New Hampshire’s Democratic primary ballot, but US President Joe Biden is not.

That’s because of a decision made by the National Democratic Party. They changed the nominating calendar to hold their first primary a few weeks from now in South Carolina, instead of New Hampshire, which has gone first since 1920.

New Hampshire Democrats are understandably not thrilled. But campaigns sprung up to get them to “Write In Joe Biden” when they head to the polls today, and that’s what the Democrats I’ve met at this Nashua polling site plan to do.

“I’m gonna write in Joe Biden,” said Susan Rourke, 60. “I'm a little miffed at, not Biden, but at the Democratic National Committee for what they did to New Hampshire.”

A half dozen volunteers stood in the driveway and held “Write In Joe Biden” signs, including Maryanne King, 64, and Pat King, 75. The sisters drove in from Massachusetts to volunteer.

“I just gotta get up here and hold the sign and hope that people think about the choice that they're making,” said Maryanne.

Trump's false claim Democrats can vote in Republican primarypublished at 18:32 Greenwich Mean Time 23 January

18:32 GMT 23 January

Gary O'Donoghue
Washington Correspondent, reporting from New Hampshire

Donald Trump has regularly claimed that Democrats can vote in today’s primary. That is not true, registered Democrats can only vote in the Democratic Primary in New Hampshire.

However, there are 344,000 so called registered undeclared voters, who can choose at the polling station which primary they want to talk part in.

It’s also true that it was possible in the early Autumn to change your registration, and about 4,000 Democrats did so – from Democrat to undeclared.

About 400 switched to Republican registration.

New Hampshire's secretary of state expects turnout today in the Republican primary to be more than 300,000.

So even if those 4,000 Democrats switched to undeclared just so they could vote against Trump, they would represent scarcely more than 1%.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from New Hampshire

I’m here in Nashua, in the south of the state, where the city has turned an elementary school auditorium into a polling site. Lunch tables have been pushed aside to make way for voting machines, and a “register to vote sign” shares the wall with a drawing of the school’s mascot, a bobcat.

Voters from across the political spectrum have steadily come through all morning.

JulieAnn Pagliarulo, 64, was determined to vote for Donald Trump.

“Everything he believed in, I believed and I connected with everything that he wanted to do for our country,” she said. She said restricting abortion and immigration, and supporting members of America’s military, were most important to her. The high costs of heating and petrol concerned her as well.

While she knows “he can be a little mean,” she respected that he was willing to make “important decisions.”

Bob Scheifele wanted a different candidate to win the Republican primary. He was backing Nikki Haley because “I don’t like Trump. That’s basically it.”

Haley was “a governor, an ambassador. She’s pretty sharp”.

And Henry Zalman, 65, didn’t want either of them. A staunch Democrat, he’s going to write in his vote for President Joe Biden “because he’s not Trump, and because he’s doing a good job”.

Biden “has done well in keeping the economy going even though people talk about it being a disaster. It’s not.”

Madeline Halpert
US reporter

Image source, Reuters

New Hampshire allows undeclared voters - who make up 39% of those registered - to take part in either the Republican or Democratic primary.

This distinct bloc of independent voters has led to electoral surprises in the past.

"That spirit - that 'live free or die', our motto - lives on in the mentality of the voters here," Matthew Bartlett, a Republican strategist in the state, told me. "They don't like to be told what to do."

Candidates will be trying to win over these more moderate New Hampshire independents, who can choose to vote in the Republican primary.

Ultimately, the final two Republican rivals - Donald Trump and Nikki Haley - are fighting for the 22 delegates at stake in New Hampshire. These will be awarded proportionally among the top candidates.

To come out on top at the Republican National Convention in July, a Republican candidate must secure 1,215 total delegates out of the 2,429 available across the primary contests.

Image source, Getty

New Hampshire is a state of nearly 1.4 million people - but experts suggest only 410,000 will actually go out to vote, just under 30% of the population.

The secretary of state for New Hampshire has released what he thinks the turnout will be, external, and he expects 322,000 people will vote in the Republican primary and 88,000 in the Democrat one.

That’s still more than the 110,000 people who voted in last week’s Iowa caucuses, a state of more than 3 million.

And about 39% of people registered to vote are undeclared – meaning they’re independent, and can vote in either primary.

So far today we've been hearing from voters and the campaign teams for Donald Trump and Nikki Haley. But let's take a moment to zoom out to see why this vote matters.

A win in New Hampshire does not guarantee a candidate will go on to be the Republican presidential candidate - but, for the past five elections, it’s matched up. Let’s take a look at the past few Republican winners.

• 2020 - as incumbent, Donald Trump's path was pretty clear and he won both New Hampshire and the presidential nomination
• 2016 - Trump won New Hampshire and won the presidential nomination
• 2012 - Mitt Romney won New Hampshire and won the nomination
• 2008 - John McCain won New Hampshire and won the nomination
• 2004 - there was no Republican primary, as George W Bush faced no challenger
• 2000 - John McCain won New Hampshire, George W Bush nomination

Trump and Haley are taking turns attacking one another as they try to woo any undecided voters.

Trump just posted on his social media site, Truth Social, claiming he's the best man to take on President Biden.

"I get much better pole [sic] numbers against Biden than Nikki Haley, not even close!!!" he wrote.

Haley, meanwhile, has insisted she's not dropping out any time soon.

"I don’t care how much y’all want to coronate Donald Trump,” she said. “The end of the day, that’s not what Americans want. Americans want a choice and we’re gonna give them that.”

Emma Vardy
Reporting from New Hampshire

You can sense a big difference in enthusiasm between Nikki Haley’s supporters and Donald Trump's.

I was at Trump’s final rally in New Hampshire where people queued for hours in freezing temperatures to see him speak.

For all the crimes he’s accused of, many of his supporters simply see it as "political persecution". Rather than hurt his support, it increases it.

“He’s an honest liar” one woman tells me. The allegations of tax fraud he faces, she says, are just a sign that he’s a good businessman.

“Don’t we all try to pay less tax? He’s not a politician, he’s just like us,” she says.

I asked another woman about the allegations of sexual assault, and the now notorious leaked tape before the 2016 election in which Trump boasted of being able to grope any woman he liked.

“He’s just a guy. It’s just things guys say. Aren’t all guys a bit like that?” she says.

Of course, many strongly disagree with these views. But perhaps you’re following the US election from afar and wondering how Trump can continue when he faces so many legal battles? When you speak to his supporters, it’s much easier to understand.

He inspires devotion-like support.

“I’ve met him. Twice!” a young man selling MAGA hats at the side of the road excitedly tells me. He talks as if he has met a rock star.

Today is mainly about the Republicans and the Trump vs Haley battle.

But let's take a moment to look at something happening in New Hampshire with the Democrats.

Voters in the state have reported getting calls with a fake recorded message claiming to be Joe Biden.

The message - thought to be generated by AI – mimics Biden and tells Democrats not to vote in the primary, and instead to “save your vote” for the November election.

According to CNN and NBC which have a recording of the message, it also uses a pet phrase of the president –“what a bunch of malarkey”.

It’s unclear who is behind it.

The New Hampshire attorney general’s office is investigating what it called the “unlawful attempt to disrupt” the primary and suppress voters. The White House said it showed the risks of deep fakes.

You can read more here.

Phil McCausland
Reporting from New Hampshire

The New Hampshire primary always brings journalists, organisers, candidates and politics fans to the frozen streets of Manchester.

To small business owners here, that means a very welcome stream of customers.

At Bookery Manchester, an independent bookstore and coffee shop, the political fracas has been good for sales.

Sales manager Lauren Perrin said the store has participated in the primaries by hosting candidate roundtables in recent weeks. And they've also sold a heap of books at the same time.

"There's been a lot more foot traffic and it's just been hectic for the past week and a half," she tells me. "Business is good."