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Polls will close in Arkansas next. Republicans and Democrats alike have been voting in primary contests for their preferred candidate to contest the presidential election later this year.

A state with a traditionally conservative electorate, it narrowly chose Donald Trump as its preferred Republican candidate in 2016 against US senator Ted Cruz, and chose him again in 2020.

The state’s political establishment, including its governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who once served as the White House press secretary under Trump, have put their full weight behind the former president.

How many delegates? 40 for Republicans and 31 for Democrats.

Who will do best? Trump could score a decisive victory here, as he has tended to perform better than Haley in traditionally Republican areas.

One piece of context: Arkansas is one of 15 US states where voters also decide on constitutional amendments when they head to the polls in November. Some issues that may pop up include the state’s near-total ban on abortions that took effect when the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022.

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Another projection from our partner CBS News - and this time for Tennessee, where Trump and Biden are projected as the winners.

Here's the latest from the Democratic and Republican nominating contests in Oklahoma, according to the BBC's US partner CBS News.

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Bernd Debusmann Jr
US Reporter

We're going to see a flurry of results from across the country over the next few hours, but it's important to not lose sight of the bigger picture.

Let's take a step back and look at some of the broader story lines we're looking out for today.

A Trump rout? So far, Donald Trump has racked up a string of victories tonight, building on 10 previous wins in nomination contests. This is unsurprising - only in Washington DC has Nikki Haley won. Despite these top-line numbers, we'll be looking for any signs of dissatisfaction among Republican voters - such as in these exit polls here - that could be an early sign of trouble ahead of the November election, or if he's eventually found guilty in one of his trials.

Biden protest votes: In Michigan last week, we saw over 100,000 voters - 12% of the total - cast "uncommitted" votes instead of ones for Joe Biden, part of an organised Gaza war protest. We'll be looking to see if there are any signs of potential weaknesses for the Biden campaign elsewhere.

Nikki Haley's exit: Trump's only remaining Republican rival, Nikki Haley, remains in the race and was even fundraising earlier this evening. She's pledged to stick it out, but election watchers will be looking for any cracks in her resolve in the face of losses to Trump across the country.

More about things to watch for tonight here.

Gary O'Donoghue
Reporting from Richmond, Virginia

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It will come as news to precisely no one that both Donald Trump and Joe Biden are projected by CBS to win their respective primaries in Virginia.

A similar pattern is likely to be repeated across America as more states report their results.

But if one small corner of Virginia is anything to go by, the public's lack of enthusiasm for these two front-runners may be leaving many unwilling to vote at all.

At the Forest Hills Presbyterian Church where I was in Richmond, staff said turnout was about half what they had expected.

If that is anywhere near repeated elsewhere, it will give serious pause to both Trump and Biden over their strategies in the autumn.

Meanwhile, while both men haven't formally sewn up their nominations, it is now all but done; and we're all in line for a very long general election campaign - starting now.

Voting has now closed in five more states - Alabama, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Tennessee - meaning polls are now shut in more than half of Super Tuesday states.

We'll bring you the next batch of projected results when we get them - but we're expecting a bit of a wait for information from our American partner CBS News, which has not been conducting exit polling in these states.

And we're still waiting for Republican primary results for Vermont, which CBS has also not yet characterised, as there's not enough data has arrived.

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In a pair of interviews with black radio hosts that aired today, President Joe Biden urged voters in both Texas and North Carolina (where we've just had some projections for) to get out the vote so he can "finish the job" he started.

"This is a once in a generation [chance] for us to be able to stand up and take on the extreme division and violence of the [Make America Great Again] Republicans," he told Power98 FM in the city of Charlotte.

Speaking with DeDe McGuire on KKDA/K104FM in Dallas, Biden also lashed out at recent remarks about the black community from his Republican rival.

“If we lose this election, you’re going to be back with Donald Trump,” he said. “The way he talks about, the way he acted, the way he has dealt with the African American community, I think, has been shameful.”

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Biden is projected to win the Democratic primary in Vermont, the BBC's US partner CBS News has just projected.

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In just under 20 minutes, polls will close in five more states: Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Alabama, which has made headlines recently over a row about IVF treatment that's proving a political headache for Republicans.

Here's what to watch for in the traditional red-state in America’s Deep South, which chose Donald Trump in 2016 and again in 2022.

How many delegates? 50 for Republicans and 52 for Democrats.

Who will do best? Polls in Alabama are overwhelmingly swaying in Trump’s favour. It is very unlikely that Haley could carve out a path to a win here.

Who could do well? For the Democrats, Joe Biden could prevail, especially among black voters - but also on the ballot is "uncommitted", and political watchers will be keen to see how many of these votes are cast in protest over his administration’s policies.

One piece of context: A recent controversial decision by Alabama’s Supreme Court that ruled frozen embryos have the same rights as children will likely weigh on some as they head to the polls. It’s led to some clinics in the state pausing IVF treatment - and is proving a political headache for Republicans which could pose an obstacle in their plans to win back suburban women and swing voters.

Across the Pacific, the world’s other superpower is holding its own mass political event, providing a rare opportunity to speak to those who run the country.

So who do China’s delegates to the National People’s Congress want to win the US election?

Our correspondent Stephen McDonell entered the Great Hall of the People and did his best to try to find out.

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The BBC's US partner CBS News has projected that both Trump and Biden have won the races in North Carolina.

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The next state where polls will close is North Carolina, in about five minutes. The swing state is political battleground territory - and was decided by less than 100,000 votes in the 2012 and 2020 presidential elections.

Experts are also keeping an eye on the state’s tightly contested governor’s race. If North Carolina’s Democratic governor is ousted by a Republican in November, it will give Republicans full control of the state’s highest offices.

How many delegates? Republicans have 74 delegates. Democrats have 116 delegates.

Who will do best? Donald Trump is the overwhelming Republican front-runner here, and is projected to beat Nikki Haley. Joe Biden will win among Democrats and is the only candidate listed on the state’s Democratic primary ballot.

Other things to consider? The number of Democrats who vote "no preference" in possible protest against the president’s handling of Israel-Gaza is something the White House will be watching.

One piece of context: North Carolina is home to a sizeable number of college-educated and moderate-Republican voters. This is a state where experts say Nikki Haley could pull off an unlikely upset if she wins in the state’s most populous cities, Charlotte, Raleigh and Greensboro.

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The BBC's US partner CBS News has projected that Trump has won the Republican primary in Virginia.

This is a change from earlier, when they'd characterised the race as "leans" Trump.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

More now from those exit polls we had earlier in several Super Tuesday states, which reveal some continued disaffection with the former president among Republican primary voters.

Some 40% of Republican primary voters in Virginia and 32% in North Carolina said Trump would not be fit to be president if convicted of a crime. Among Nikki Haley voters in North Carolina, only 21% said they would vote for the Republican nominee "no matter who it is”.

Of course, opinions could change in the heat of the autumn general election campaign. Back in 2016, exit polls found that 75% of non-Trump voters said they would be dissatisfied with Trump as the Republican nominee.

In the end, 90% of Republicans backed him against Hillary Clinton.

You might be wondering what we mean when we say that the Virginia race is "leaning Trump", according to the projections by the BBC's US partner CBS.

"Lean" is one of the words used by CBS to characterise how the contest is looking in a particular place. It means a marginal lead for a particular candidate - with the caveat that this could change as the night wears on.

Other terms they might use include "toss-up", when neither candidate has a meaningful lead.

CBS builds that characterisation by using exit polling - whereby voters are asked which candidate they chose as they leave a polling station.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
US reporter

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We've just had some early indication of how the results in Virginia are looking, with the race characterised as "leans" Donald Trump. "Leans" means a slight lead for a candidate that could easily change.

On Saturday, I spoke to several of the voters who said they planned to vote for him.

Among them was a group of young university students who were once supporters of his main rival, Nikki Haley, but have since shifted their allegiances to the former president, whom they were going to see at a rally in Richmond over the weekend.

“I loved Nikki Haley. She used to be phenomenal,” Banks Marlon, a 20-year-old native South Carolinian, told me. “But she’s totally changed….I just think she can’t be trusted anymore. She’s been corrupted.”

According to Marlon, he began to change his mind after seeing Haley "contradict herself" on "countless" occasions. "I think Trump is one of the last people that's incorruptible," he added.

Our partners at CBS News are characterising the Republican contest in Virginia as "leans Trump".

Characterising a race as "leans” means a slight lead for a candidate - but that could easily change as the night goes on.

Meanwhile in Vermont, CBS is not yet ready to project or characterise the race.

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The BBC's US partner CBS News is projecting Biden has won the Democratic primary in Virginia.

Polls have now closed in the Democratic and Republican primary contests in Vermont and Virginia.

More westerly states in the US will follow later.

Stay with us and we'll bring you projected results from those first places as soon as we get them.

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There's just under 10 minutes to go until the first Super Tuesday polls close.

States across five time zones are voting today - or six, if you count the territory of American Samoa - which means the projected results will be staggered across several hours. Here’s when the polls close:

19:00 EST (00:00 GMT)

Virginia, Vermont

19:30 EST (00:30 GMT)

North Carolina

20:00 EST (01:00 GMT)

Alabama, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, and Tennessee

20:30 EST (01:30 GMT)

Arkansas

21:00 EST (02:00 GMT)

Colorado, Minnesota, and Texas

23:00 EST (04:00 GMT)

California(it could be some time before we receive results from here), Utah

00:00 EST (05:00 GMT)

Alaska, American Samoa