Americans have taken to the polls today to cast their vote in the 2016 presidential election.
The two most publicised nominees are Hilliary Clinton for the Democrats and Donald Trump for Republican but voters will also have the choice of Jill Stein for the Green Party and Gary Johnson for the Libertarian Party.
The earliest polls close will be at 12am UK time but the polls close across the contry at various times depending on state.
Both candidates need 270 electoral college votes to secure the victory, each state is given a certain number of votes in the electoral college based on size.
This means when the people go to vote at the polls they are voting for the people who will then go on to vote as their representative. Most states are winner takes all though, so if one candidate wins Florida they take all the votes they can cast. The only two exceptions to this are Nebraska and Maine.
So far more than 46 million people have turned out to take part in early voting via mailing and polling stations. Since the polls opened this the there have been widespread complaints of wait times as well as equipment failure in several states.
Keep an eye on our live updates through the night here
Polls lea
ding into election day have only given Hilliary Clinton a 3% lead over her rival Donal Trump which leaves only a very small margin of victory.
A 34 of the 100 seats in the Senate are up for grabs as well as all 435 of the seats in the House of Representatives both of which are Republican controlled.
Candidates will be almost certain they can win certain states, for example the Republicans are almost guaranteed Texas while the Democrats will be banking on California.
The key swing states that the two candidates will be after and the ones to be watching out for are: Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, North Carolina and Nevada.
More on this story as it happens…
