Bernd Debusmann Jr
US reporter

Image source, Getty Images

With not long until the first polls close on Super Tuesday, Nikki Haley's campaign has sent out a fundraising email telling supporters that she needs support "right now".

"We've got a country to save, and we have a real shot at getting it done," the email says. "We've come not too far to not give it everything we have," the email adds.

The email asks people to "step up" with "any amount you can" before polls close.

Haley told Fox News this morning she had not yet made a decision about her future.

"As much as everybody wants to go and push me out, I'm not ready to get out yet," she said. And she added that she had no intention of running as an independent if she drops out as a Republican, though the bipartisan No Labels political group has reportedly reached out to her.

Earlier, Haley's campaign confirmed to CBS News that there is nothing on her calendar for Wednesday, the day after Super Tuesday.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
US reporter

Image source, Getty Images

The Biden campaign has shrugged off recent polling suggesting that Donald Trump has an edge over the president in a general election, saying that "polls come and go".

In an interview with CBS, the BBC's US partner, campaign spokesperson Kevin Munoz said that "it's really important to understand that there's only one guy in this race that is focused on solutions and making the lives of the American people better."

Asked how the campaign would respond to voters' top concerns about immigration and the economy, Munoz said the campaign is "taking that message to every single American that will decide this election" and that Biden is "consolidating his base".

"We're seeing serious issues for Donald Trump with some of the key voters that we think are gettable," he added.

We’ll be bringing you live coverage in text and video of Super Tuesday through the night as the results roll in. From 19:00 EST (00:00 GMT), you’ll be able to stream our special programme by clicking the play button at the top of this page.

Our correspondents are in California, Virginia, Colorado and Washington DC.

Congresswomen Victoria Spartz and Kathy Manning will speak about the critical issues facing voters and how the US election affects the world.

And we’ll also hear from veterans of both the Biden and Trump administrations, as well as famed pollster Frank Luntz. Stick with us.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
US reporter

Image source, .

Among those who were planning on voting for Donald Trump today was Sharon Roberts, a Virginia resident whose son Sean died of a fentanyl overdose in 2018.

Speaking to the BBC outside a Trump rally in the state capital of Richmond on Saturday, Roberts said she fears that an "out of control" border would lead to other families experiencing similar losses. Fentanyl is smuggled across the border.

“I’m 100% for Trump, because he’ll get these borders closed," she said. “[The Biden administration] is not worried about this it seems. This is a major problem, but they are not recognising it.”

“Every day I’m hearing about a new person dying from fentanyl,” she added. “It’s all across America…we’ve got to curtail that.”

The BBC spoke to over a dozen Trump supporters at the Saturday rally - and every single one said that immigration and border security were among their primary concerns.

Joe Biden has won the Democratic caucus in Iowa, the Iowa Democratic Party announced Tuesday.

This is more solid than him being projected to win - but is because the contest has been called as Democrats in the state have been able to vote by sending in mail-in ballots since mid-January.

What will be interesting still is to see the breakdown - and how many people voted for "uncommitted" instead of Biden as a form of protest, as happened in Michigan last week.

The first results we'll get tonight are expected shortly - from the Iowa Democratic caucus. It was carried out in a new way this year, with mail-in ballots only. Ballots could be sent in from 12 January until today.

The Republican caucuses happened separately and in person back in January, where Donald Trump emerged as the clear front-runner.

President Joe Biden, Marianne Williamson and Dean Phillips are all on the Democratic ballot - with an "uncommitted" option also listed, which is viewed as a protest vote largely due to Biden's support for Israel in its war in Gaza.

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America correspondent

One of the remarkable things about the 2024 Republican nomination race is how stable it has been by historical standards.

For most of the past year, Donald Trump has held a comfortable lead in the polls - a lead that has ultimately translated into wins at the ballot box.

A CBS exit poll from North Carolina helps explain why.

More than half of the Republican primary voters there said they had made up their mind about whom to support before the start of this year, with only 15% saying they decided within the last week.

Some 31% said they had decided earlier this year.

With many Republican voters already locked into their preferences, Nikki Haley has had little room in which to improve her standing, no matter what tactics she tried or positions she took.

If North Carolina is indicative of the national Republican mood, the die was cast against her a long time ago.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
US Reporter

The preliminary exit poll data from CBS - our US partner - also shows that a majority of voters in the Republican primaries in North Carolina and California do not believe that Joe Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 election.

The claim is one that is often repeated by the current Republican front-runner, Donald Trump.

In North Carolina, for example, 60% of the party's primary voters do not believe Biden's win was legitimate.

In Virginia, however, opinion is more divided, with 46% of voters saying they don't believe Biden won legitimately, compared to 45% who do.

A majority of Republican primary voters in both states - 53% in Virginia and 64% in North Carolina - said they believe Trump would still be fit to be president even if convicted of a crime.

Bernd Debusmann Jr
US reporter

We're starting to get exit poll data from CBS, the BBC's US partner, from surveys from the Republican primaries in three states - Virginia, North Carolina and California.

While it's still early in the evening, we're seeing a clear trend: immigration and the economy are the top issues on voters' minds. The two topics far outweigh abortion and foreign policy.

In North Carolina, for example, 43% of voters picked immigration as their top concern, followed by 31% who chose the economy, 11% who chose abortion and 9% who chose foreign policy.

The numbers were similar in Virginia, where 37% of people who participated in the exit poll chose immigration, compared to 33% for the economy, 11% for foreign policy and 11% for abortion.

Notably, the data suggests that Donald Trump has a significant advantage over Nikki Haley as far as who voters trust to handle the border and the economy. In Virginia, over 60% of people said they believed Trump would do a better job on the issue.

Previous polling has shown that the issues are important to voters - from both sides of the political spectrum - across the US.

James FitzGerald
Live reporter

We're starting to receive exit polls conducted by the BBC's US partner CBS.

They've been asking questions of Republican voters in Virginia, California and North Carolina - which are among the states that went to the polls today - including which issues they believe to be most important ahead of the 2024 election.

We'll bring you some insights as soon as we have a closer look.

The campaign to get former US President Donald Trump re-elected says it wants to get as many delegates as possible on side tonight.

"The Trump campaign is laser focused on getting as many delegates as possible and coalescing the entire party in order to defeat Joe Biden and take back the White House," the campaign said in a statement on tonight's expectations.

Image source, Reuters

Sam Cabral & Matt Murphy
US reporters, in Washington DC

Image source, Ebun Ekunwe

The BBC has been speaking to voters across the US on Super Tuesday, as Donald Trump and Joe Biden look set to all but seal their respective parties nominations for president.

Ebun Ekunwe, a 75-year-old Texas native, voted for Donald Trump in 2016. But she says she plans to vote for Biden in November, telling the BBC that his Republican rival would "normalise evil".

"There is no longer a Republican Party in this country" she says.

"What used to be that party is now the Party of Trump, as Donald Trump Junior assured us a couple of years ago. What makes that germane to your question is that the man who has absorbed the party he used to belong to his agenda will have no problem subsuming the nation to the Trump family agenda. That could be the end of democracy as we know it.

Image source, Getty Images

Former US First Lady Michelle Obama's team has shut down rumours that she could be be running as a presidential candidate this year.

There had been speculation swirling on the left and right that she could be announced as a late Democratic candidate, but her team have now quashed all talk of that being a possibility.

“As former First Lady Michelle Obama has expressed several times over the years, she will not be running for president,” said her communications director, Crystal Carson, in a statement to NBC News.

Carson continued: “Mrs Obama supports President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ re-election campaign.”

Image source, Getty Images

The self-made billionaire entrepreneur, Mark Cuban has described former US president, Donald Trump, as a "snake oil salesperson" in an email to news website, Axios, external.

Cuban, who owns NBA team the Dallas Mavericks, wrote: "I don't want a snake oil salesperson as President", saying he would vote for current president Joe Biden, "all day every day".

There has been speculation that Cuban is keen to launch a political campaign following his announcement that after 13 years, he was leaving popular TV show, Shark Tank where he invests his own money into business ideas that are pitched on the programme.

Cuban outlined the difference between Trump and Biden to Axios as: "One will tell you his snake oil will cure everything that ails you. The other will show you the details of his policies through charts, graphs and statements."

Image source, Getty Images

A Vermont town has allowed 17-year-olds who will be 18 by the November general election to vote in the state’s presidential primaries today.

Some voters in Brattleboro could therefore help elect the major party nominees who are more than 60 years their senior – Joe Biden, 81 and Donald Trump, 77.

Legislative approval was needed to change the rules in the town’s charter, which has a population of 7,500.

The Republican governor had rejected the measure twice before but the Democratic-controlled legislature overrode the governor's veto last year.

And even younger people - 16-year-olds too - will be able to vote in the state’s separate local elections this week.

Gary O'Donoghue
Reporting from Virginia

Despite the spring-like weather in Virginia, polling officials tell the BBC that voting has been slow in Richmond.

At the Forest Hills Presbyterian church in the south of the city, there is also a distinct lack of enthusiasm among several voters in the Democratic primary.

Benny Miles Jr, an elderly African American man, says he tried to vote for no one in particular but the polling staff had told him he had to choose someone. Not much choice, he says, between "a criminal and an incompetent" - referring to Donald Trump and Joe Biden.

Matthew McCormick, another Democrat says Joe Biden's age is a big concern for many Democrats he knew, adding that the Gaza issue has also been "a real drag" on a Biden candidacy this time around.

Laura Dyson too laments that there hasn't been better options. She did contemplate voting for Nikki Haley in the Republican primary, as Virginia voters can choose which contest they participate in.

McCormick says he knew a number of Democrats who’ve decided to do just that in order, as he put it, to ensure their opponent in November was sane.

Exit polls are surveys voters take as they leave the polls on election day.

Reaching voters at that moment helps offer a more accurate view of what voters think about candidates and key issues.

How it works: Interviewers wait outside of randomly selected polling places and approach voters at specific intervals.

Those who agree to be surveyed fill out a confidential questionnaire and place it in a ballot box.

Questions are likely to include who people voted for, their demographics, opinions about the candidates and opinions on important issues.

Some exit polls are used to predict the winners of races where the margin between the candidates is large.

Votes for the 2024 US presidential candidate are being cast across 15 states in a day called Super Tuesday.

But who are voters heading to the ballot box for and why?

We hear what issues really matter to locals in North Carolina, Texas, Virginia and Alabama.

Watch this clip as they tell us who they want to be the next president of the United States.

Sumi Somaskanda
Chief presenter, reporting from California

Image source, .

It’s a normal, sunny Tuesday along Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles – it doesn’t exactly feel like the biggest day of the election year so far.

But that might have something to do with the fact that Californians can vote by mail and some have already cast their ballots.

We’ve spoken to a few young voters who say they’re not planning on taking part in the primary today – mostly because they’re not interested.

Image source, Getty Images

Dean Phillips, a Democratic presidential candidate has just voted for himself this Super Tuesday, in a race that will almost certainly see him beaten by Joe Biden.

Phillips, the Representative from Minnesota, has not managed to win a single delegate just yet, but appears happy with his campaign, telling the New York Times: "I got people talking...I got people participating.”

“I recognise I’m not winning a lot of delegates and probably won’t win any states," Phillips said.