Election day voting has begun in the United States, with Donald Trump and Kamala Harris vying to become the next president.
Harris has advocated for abortion rights and pledged to lower food and housing costs for working families. Trump has vowed to seal the border and has proposed tax cuts worth trillions
Americans aren't just choosing the president; they're also picking members of the US Congress, and some states are voting on abortion rights. More than 82 million people voted before election day.
Hoax bomb threats trigger evacuations in Georgia
There were five non-credible bomb threats at polling locations in Fulton County, Georgia, this morning, reports CBS, BBC's US media partner.
Nadine Williams, the county’s director of registration and elections, says the threats led to the temporary evacuation of two locations for approximately 30 minutes each in the swing state.
The county, which includes the city of Atlanta, is now working to obtain a court order to extend the hours of the two affected locations until 19:30 local time (00:30 GMT Wednesday).
We reported earlier that technical issues in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, had prevented some voters from scanning their ballots, and electoral officials in that battleground state also filed a court order to extend the voting time.
Philadelphia warns that handcuffs await those who interfere in elections
I just left the offices of the Philadelphia District Attorney's Election Task Force, which has about 60 assistant district attorneys assigned to investigate any complaints about the electoral process in the city.
In a brief news conference, officials said that the task force has so far received "dozens" of reports, primarily about people intentionally blocking access to polling sites.
District Attorney Larry Krasner said the behaviour is "a little more aggressive" than previous elections in the city, although the issues have so far been resolved without incident.
Officials are also investigating social media posts that purport to show interactions with workers and the inside of polling locations—potentially making them violations of state wiretap and election security laws.
No arrests have so far been made.
Krasner - a Democrat - delivered a strong warning at the outset of his remarks, and pointed at staff members who printed, overnight, T-shirts marked with the acronym FAFO - or "F Around and Find Out".
"There are handcuffs. There are cells. There are courtrooms, and there are Philadelphia jurors who will want to know why it is a person tried to erase their votes, block their votes, bully their votes or take away their votes."
Rudy Giuliani pulls up to Florida polling site
We’re still waiting for Trump at his West Palm Beach polling site, but Rudy Giuliani, his erstwhile personal attorney, has pulled up in a slate blue convertible.
He wore an American flag shirt and was immediately mobbed by the press and supporters. Like many snowbirds, the ex-New York City mayor has a condominium here in Florida.
Giuliani is still facing repercussions from his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results on behalf of Trump.
He was ordered to pay two Georgia poll workers nearly $150 million after he was held liable for defamation for spreading falsehoods that they committed election fraud. A federal judge recently ordered him to hand over his Manhattan apartment and luxury items to the women via a receivership.
Giuliani has also been indicted in Georgia and Arizona over charges he attempted to meddle in each state’s 2020 election results. He has pleaded not guilty.
Polling opens in Alaska and Washington state
The clocks have just turned 07:00 local time in Alaska and 08:00 local time in Washington state, meaning that polling stations are now open.
There are three electoral college votes up for grabs in Alaska, America's largest state by land, and there are 12 electoral college votes available in Washington, the lumber producer of the US.
Hawaii - with four electoral college votes - has the honour as the final US state to open its polling booths with voting to begin at 07:00 local time (17:00 GMT).
And to get a sense of just how big America is, and the various time differences across the country, voting in Hawaii starts just seven hours before the first polls close on the East Coast.
'We will secure Trump's victory this time' - Steve Bannon
Steve Bannon, former chief strategist of the Trump White House, plans to hold an election watch party tonight at the Willard Hotel—the five-star Washington, DC hotel that served as the "command centre" for Trump loyalists seeking to overturn the 2020 election results.
Bannon, was released from federal prison one week ago, after serving four months behind bars for contempt of the US Congress.
On January 5, 2021, the day before the US Capitol attack, Bannon and other Trump allies held court in a set of rooms and suites at the Willard, one block away from the White House.
It served as their headquarters for their pressure campaign on Republicans to block the certification of Joe Biden's victory the next day.
Bannon's release from prison and revival of the January 6 "war room" comes as Trump allies have laid the groundwork for legal, political and constitutional challenges to the 2024 results. Top Republicans have also repeatedly refused to say they will accept the election’s outcome if Trump loses.
"Unlike in 2020, we will secure Trump's victory this time," Bannon told CBS News, the BBC's US partner, on Tuesday morning.
Tensions high in a deeply divided nation
There is a much greater air of unpredictability around today’s vote than is usual on election day.
With polls still suggesting that it is an exceptionally tight race, no one knows who is likely to emerge the winner.
But that’s not the only question in the US today. We don’t know when a result will be declared, as it could take days to get a final vote count from some of the key battleground states like Pennsylvania.
There is also trepidation about how people might react to the result. The US National Guard is on standby in Washington state, Oregon and Nevada in case of civil unrest. And security barriers have been erected outside the White House and other sites in the US capital.
Voters say they are exhausted by this tumultuous campaign and want it to be over—but are also apprehensive about what may happen next.
Tension is running high in this deeply divided nation which is about to make a critical decision.
Abortion is on the ballot in 10 states
Who should be the next president won't be the only thing on the ballot today.
Millions of voters in Montana, Arizona, Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada, New York and South Dakota will be asked how their state should regulate abortion.
Most of the initiatives in those 10 states would allow abortion until foetal viability, which is generally considered about 24 weeks, or later only in instances when the health of the pregnant woman is at risk.
The efforts are a response to the Supreme Court's 2022 decision to overturn Roe v Wade, which led many states to enact abortion restrictions or bans. Pro-choice advocates hope that by having voters directly decide to enshrine abortion in states' laws, they can bypass the ups and downs of state courts.
But there's another reason why some want abortion on the ballot - voter turnout.
Democrats hope that more people who support abortion rights, who overwhelmingly back their party, will show up on election day because the issue is on the ballot.
Two states lose bids to block election monitors from observing polling stations
Both Texas and Missouri have been told to allow election monitors from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to observe polling stations after US judges rejected their bids to have officials blocked.
To monitor compliance with voting rules, the DOJ had announced that they would be sending lawyers to check polling stations in 86 jurisdictions across 27 states, including some in Texas and Missouri.
It is common practice for the DOJ to send staff to monitor voting locations during national elections.
Texas and Missouri had sought to block this procedure in separate legal claims, but two different courts have rejected the states' arguments.
Polls open in four more states, including California and Nevada
It’s just past 07:00 in western US states (15:00 GMT), and polls are officially open in California, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon.
The only states left to start voting now are Alaska and Hawaii.
California has 54 electoral votes - the most of any state in the US - but is considered a blue wall state as the last time it voted for a Republican candidate was in 1988.
Nevada, which has six electoral votes, is the last of the seven swing states to open polls today.
As a reminder - states award all their electoral college votes to whoever wins the majority of the state's vote.
For example, if a candidate wins 50.1% of the vote in California, they are given all of the state's 54 electoral votes. A candidate who wins a state by a landslide would still pick up the same number of electoral votes.
'We're on the same team; however, we vote', Vance
We saw Trump's running mate JD Vance turn up to vote in Cincinnati, Ohio, a little earlier - we can bring you an update now on what he had to say.
The Republican candidate for vice president told the press that he expects Trump to win, but acknowledged that, whatever the result, half the country is going to be "at least partially disappointed".
"My attitude is, the best way to heal the rift in the country is to try to govern the country as well as we can, create as much prosperity as we can for the American people, and remind our fellow Americans that we are all fundamentally on the same team, however we voted," he says.
Voting time extended for some in Pennsylvania after 'technical' issues
As election day enters its fourth hour in Pennsylvania, we've been hearing from voters in Cambria County - where technical glitches have been reported.
A local woman, Jessenia Anderson, texted me earlier to say that voting machines were down - and that "scanners aren't working".
"People are voting and leaving their ballots either face down or placing them in a lock box under the scanner," she said.
Similar incidents were reported on X, formerly Twitter.
In a statement, the Cambria County Board of Election said that a "software malfunction" had prevented some voters from scanning their ballots.
"This should not discourage voters from voting at their voting precincts," the statement added.
The board has filed a court order extending the time to vote in the county - which is located near Pittsburgh.
"There is a process in place for issues of this nature," the county said. "All completed ballots will be accepted, secured and counted."
Issues have also been reported in Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh. In at least two cases, the county says that electoral officials were delayed arriving at their designated polling places.
A quiet morning in Michigan due to early voters
It’s relatively quiet here in liberal Washtenaw County in Michigan, where more than 3.2 million people have cast early votes.
That’s over half of the total voters in 2020 when 5.6 million people filled out a ballot.
Courtney Kutcher walked to the polls in Ann Arbor with her coffee on this warm morning, wanting the satisfaction of seeing her ballot go into the machine on election day.
She voted for Harris because she believes the candidate will “give our kids, both boys and girls, a better future in America.”
The Harris campaign is counting on moms like Ms Kutcher to turn out in large numbers in liberal counties in the state to make up for Trump’s expected wins in more rural areas.
A slow start in storm-ravaged North Carolina
I’ve just arrived to a polling location in Buncombe County, North Carolina, one of the areas most devastated at the end of September by Hurricane Helene.
With little time to respond, the state’s election officials placed generator-powered “festival tents” for voters here and at six other locations in the region.
Where I am, in the Broad River Township, the wounds of the storm are still raw. Dump trucks carrying debris led the way as I made my way to the polling site on this rainy Tuesday morning.
“Just what we need, more rain,” jokes Amanda Lambert, an event staff member who’s been hired to monitor this polling site.
By 09:00 local time (14:00 GMT), roughly 35 people had made their way up the windy mountainside—past chainsawed tree trunks and crumbled concrete roadsides—to cast their votes here.
It’s been fairly slow going this morning.
But Lilian Govus, Buncombe County's communication director, estimates that western North Carolina will break its total voter turnout record of 78% that it set in 2020.
Trump campaign claims election workers 'illegally kicked out'
Donald Trump's campaign has claimed that four court-appointed Republican election workers were "blocked from the process and illegally kicked out" of a poll location in Philadelphia this morning on election day.
"This is a crime and should not happen in a fair and secure election as promised," a campaign statement reads. "This is an unacceptable breach of public trust, undermining transparency and Philadelphia's election."
Three of the four were added back, the statement notes.
"We demand [District Attorney] Larry Krasner and election officials to immediately act and allow our poll observers into precincts," the statement adds. "Refusing to allow Republicans into the room threatens the integrity and security of Pennsylvania's elections."
Krasner, the Philadelphia district attorney, will hold a press conference to provide an election update at 10:30 local time (18:30 GMT)
Pennsylvania Harris voter: 'Trump is a bully'
Francis O’Neill has just cast his vote in Philadelphia and tells me he chose to back Kamala Harris this time
Having voted for both Democrats and Republicans in the past, he’s exactly the type of floating voter both campaigns have been trying to win over here in the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania.
“I think Donald Trump is a bully," he says. “I think what Kamala Harris is promising works. She’s a good woman, and that’s what we need in this country."
So much effort and energy has been made to persuade voters here, but Francis laughs and tells me all the attention has been “a pain in the neck—the phone hasn’t stopped ringing with canvassers.”
But as a result, he knows there’s a real sense of nervousness.
“I think people will hold their ground, and the law is on our side. But Donald Trump will do anything he thinks he can get away with. He's an ass."
Trump's running mate Vance votes in Ohio
Donald Trump's running mate, JD Vance, voted in person at 9:30 am ( 5:30 pm Kenyan time) in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Republican vice presidential nominee was seen arriving at a polling station there with his wife and their children.
He appeared to be in good spirits.
Polls were open in Arkansas as early as 8 am (4:30 Kenyan time), bringing the total number of US states voting to almost 30.
Arkansas carries six electoral college votes, compared to states like California - which has 54 - and New York, which has 28.
How many votes a state gets is, in part, dictated by its population size.
Several other states, including Mississippi and North Dakota, opened their voting up about half an hour earlier.
Voting opens in seven more states - including swing state Arizona
It's 07:00 (3 pm in Kenya) in the swing state of Arizona, which means polls are opening for votes to be cast. As the only swing state along the US-Mexico border, the results in Arizona will be crucial for both presidential candidates.
The state was also at the heart of 2020 election misinformation claims and pro-Trump protests.
