Presidential Election Day 2024 live updates: Polls open as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump fight for victory

Voters began casting their ballots with polling stations open from 5am in Vermont and 6am in multiple states.

At 6pm Eastern Time on Tuesday, the first polls will close in Indiana and Kentucky.

Then the U.S. will wait as the ballots are counted across the country and the tension begins to find out who will be the next President of the United States. For some states, the result will be announced as soon as the voting stops.

But for others – especially the seven battleground states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada and North Carolina – it could take hours or even days until we find out the winner.

DailyMail.com has laid out everything you need to know – hour by hour – about the drama that will unfold – including when the polls close in each state, who is predicted to win and when to expect a result.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump both spent the waning hours of their campaigns in the well-trodden swing states of Pennsylvania and Michigan, widely seen as critical to winning the White House.

Harris wrapped her day in Philadelphia, where Lady Gaga sang ‘God Bless America’ and Oprah Winfrey appeared on stage with first-time voters. Ricky Martin, who is from Puerto Rico, was also there to draw out Puerto Rican voters turned off by a comedian who called their homeland a “floating island of garbage” at a recent Trump rally.

“Our people-powered movement reflects a simple and undeniable truth: that we are all in this together,” Harris said.

Harris didn’t arrive at the vice president’s residence, the Naval Observatory, until 1:41 a.m.

Trump, meanwhile, spent the final hours of the day in Grand Rapids, Michigan, wrapping up around 2 a.m.

• Former president Trump landed back in Florida just hours ago after finishing his last rally after 2 a.m.
• He is expected to await the electoral results with his family at his residence in Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach.
• The Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is seen speaking at his last campaign rally at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan, below

• As of 7am EST, polls have opened in over 25 states – Delaware, DC, Washington, DC, Florida, Georgia Illinois, Kansas MarylandMassachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire and Virginia.Indiana and Kentucky and Maine.

A man seen above votes at PS 20 Anna Silver Elementary School, on Election Day for the 2024 U.S. presidential election in Manhattan, New York City.

A resident of Dixville Notch shows their ID above as they check in to cast their ballots in the US election at midnight in the living room of the Tillotson House at the Balsams Grand Resort, marking the first votes in the US election, in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire.

• Tens of millions of Americans having already cast their ballots. Those include record numbers in Georgia, North Carolina and other battleground states that could decide the winner.
• As of Monday, Associated Press tracking of advance voting nationwide showed roughly 82 million ballots already cast – — slightly more than half the total number of votes in the presidential election four years earlier.
• The early turnout in Georgia, which has flipped between the Republican and Democratic nominees in the previous two presidential elections, has been so robust — over 4 million voters — that a top official in the secretary of state’s office said the big day could look like a “ghost town” at the polls.

DailyMail.com was with Vance on ‘Trump Force Two’ as he slugged it out on the final hours of the campaign trail in a desperate bid to clinch victory.

There was beer, donuts, a lot of iced coffee and some surprising admissions from the VP hopeful.

Among his admissions was the one thing he never talks about with ‘superstitious’ Trump.

The first result came in last night in the tiny town of Dixville Notch in New Hampshire, where residents honored a tradition of casting ballots at the stroke of midnight.

But the result was an ominous forecast of what is one of the closest races in history – 3 for Trump, and 3 for Harris.

While a tie, it’s a sharp swing away from the Democrats.

In 2020, five of the voters went for Biden, with only one voting red.

Americans are braced for civil unrest amid scary predictions of ‘blood’ during today’s knife’s-edge presidential election, reviving painful memories of recent assassination bids and chaos after the 2020 vote.

On Monday, Businesses in Washington, DC boarded up their windows as security fencing went up around the White House, US Vice President Harris’s residence, and other key buildings in the capital.

Election workers have prepared for gun attacks, amid a flurry of threats to blow up political offices and other sensitive sites ahead of election day.

Washington state has activated some members of the National Guard to be on stand-by, while a Democratic congressman has warned ‘there may be blood’ resulting from clashes between angry voters.

By DailyMail.com pollster and founder of J.L. Partners James Johnson

Over the last six months I have traveled the swing states.

Two debates, two hurricanes, and countless interviews later, we have arrived at Election Day.

Because American political opinion is so diverse – and so polarized – there is no one type of swing voter who will determine the outcome.

Instead, the result hinges on several groups who, depending on how they move, will put Kamala Harris or Donald Trump in the White House.

This is the cast that will decide the election:

In what could be one of closest elections in U.S. history, the difference between the candidates could not be more stark.

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have laid out two visions for America that are poles apart during the unprecedented 2024 campaign for the White House.

The rivals have each painted one another as extreme. They both warn their opponent will be a disaster for America.

When it comes to the economy, foreign policy, immigration, crime, abortion and taxes, both candidates have set out grand plans that would provide a crucial indicator of how the next four years will look like.

DailyMail.com has put together a guide to show where the candidates stand on a number of crucial policies that matter most to American voters.

It may go down as the closest race in presidential history.

As polling booths are flooded on Tuesday, the race will be essentially out of the candidates’ hands during the excruciating wait for the results to come in.

Here, we have put together an exhaustive guide detailing what Harris and Trump will be watching for as the drama unfolds.

For there are multiple scenarios which will leave them within touching distance of grabbing the keys to the White House.

See our interactive guide to how Harris and Trump can find a path to the White House courtesy of Dailymail.com’s Deep Dive team.

Millions of voters are heading to the polls today to cast their ballots, but it could take some time to count the results.

What could give anxious Americans across the country some sense of where the country is headed is the exit polling which comes out as the results are coming in on Election Day.

The exit poll is the only survey conducted entirely of voters who have already cast their ballots in the election.

It gives voters and news organizations a better sense of what is happening on the ground with voters on Election Day and in early voting as the results come in.

The polling is conducted by Edison Research, which has been the only research firm to conduct national exit polling in the United States since 2004.