
The 2016 US election takes place today, after which the world's most powerful nation will have a new leader. Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump will become the 45th President of the United States. But what is happening when, and how long do you need to stay up if you're in the UK?
What happens on election day itself?
Polling booths will open in all 50 states and in Washington DC across six time zones.
Timings vary for each state - voting generally begins at 11am and noon GMT on November 8 (6am and 7am ET) and closes between midnight and 1.00am GMT on November 9 (7pm and 8pm ET). In Iowa and North Dakota polls are open till 9pm ET.
Timeline | US election day and night
00:01 ET (05:01 GMT, Tuesday 8th)
The first results are announced - possibly in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire
06:00 ET (11:00 GMT)
Polling stations open in east coast states and election day proper underway
18:00 ET (23:00 GMT)
The first polls close in Indiana and Kentucky, two traditionally Republican states
19:00 ET (00:00 GMT, Wednesday 9th)
Polling stations start to close in the battleground states of battleground states of Florida and Virginia, as well as Georgia, South Carolina and Vermont. The first state projections will be made based on exit polls
19:30 ET (00:30 GMT)
Polls close in the traditionally Republican West Virginia, as well as two other swing states: Ohio and North Carolina
20:00 ET (01:00 GMT)
Polls close in a host of states. Two of them, Pennsylvania and Michigan, are big target states. Other states where polls close are: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, District Of Columbia, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Texas
21:00 ET (02:00 GMT)
Another flurry of activity when polls close in Colorado, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Wyoming. Colorado and Wisconsin are both swing states.
22:00 ET (03:00 GMT)
Poll closes in two swing states, Iowa and Nevada, plus Arizona, Montana and Utah. Utah could be interesting because Mormon and ex-CIA operative Evan McMullin has polled well.
23:00 ET (04:00 GMT)
Earliest possible time the election will be “called” for either candidate by US TV networks. It's also the time the polls close in California, a Democrat state with the most electoral college votes of any state (55), as well as Hawaii, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
Will there be exit polls?
As soon as polls close, there will be a projection for that state based on opinion polls carried out throughout the day. These should give a good indication of who has won that state, although as we have seen in recent UK elections, they are not to be relied upon.
We will get our first projections from east coast states. There may be a dozen states where it's too close to call based on exit polls, and in those states the TV networks will make no projection and we will have to wait for the actual results.
When was the election declared in 2012?
This was when each state was "called" by the Associated Press in 2012, based on projected results - note that Florida was too close to call:
Nov. 6, 2012
19:05: WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama wins Vermont; Romney wins Kentucky.
19:30: WASHINGTON (AP) — Romney wins West Virginia.
19:55: WASHINGTON (AP) — Romney wins South Carolina.
19:56: WASHINGTON (AP) — Romney wins Indiana.
20:01: WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama wins IL, CT, ME, DC, DE, RI, MD, MA; Romney wins OK.
20:21: WASHINGTON (AP) — Romney wins Tennessee.
20:28: WASHINGTON (AP) — Romney wins Georgia.
20:46: WASHINGTON (AP) — Romney wins Alabama.
21:02: WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama wins NY; Romney wins NE, WY, KS, LA, SD, TX, ND, MI.
21:06: WASHINGTON (AP) — CORRECTS: Obama wins NY, MI; Romney wins NE, WY, KS, LA, SD, TX, ND. (Corrects APNewsAlert )
21:10: WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama wins New Jersey; Romney wins Arkansas.
21:13: WASHINGTON (AP) — Romney wins Mississippi.
21:48: WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama wins Pennsylvania.
22:00: WASHINGTON (AP) — Romney wins Utah.
22:04: WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama wins New Hampshire.
22:28: WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama wins all 4 electoral votes in Maine.
22:36: WASHINGTON (AP) — Romney wins Arizona.
22:44: WASHINGTON (AP) — Romney wins all 5 electoral votes in Nebraska.
22:53: WASHINGTON (AP) — Romney wins North Carolina.
22:57: WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama wins Minnesota.
23:00: WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama wins CA, WA, HI; Romney wins ID.
23:09: WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama wins New Mexico; Romney wins Missouri.
23:17: WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama wins Ohio.
23:19: WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama wins Iowa.
23:29: WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama wins Oregon.
23:38: WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama re-elected president. [Call based on AP’s determination that Obama had won Colorado, thereby exceeding the necessary 270 electoral votes. Separately, AP's Colorado wire reported at 23:39 that Obama had won the state. ]
23:43: WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats retain control of the Senate.
23:46: WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama wins Colorado.
23:47: WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama wins Wisconsin.
23:54: WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama wins Nevada.
Nov. 7, 2012
00:37: WASHINGTON (AP) — Obama wins Virginia.
00:42: WASHINGTON (AP) — Romney wins Montana.
00:49: CHICAGO (AP) — Obama aide: Romney concedes to Obama in a phone call.
00:58: BOSTON (AP) — Romney: 'I pray that the president will be successful in guiding our nation'
1:30: WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans win control of House for 2 more years, assuring more clashes with Obama.
1:43: CHICAGO (AP) — Victorious Obama: 'We have picked ourselves up,' fought our way back, 'best is yet to come'
1:57: WASHINGTON (AP) — Romney wins Alaska.
Where will the proper first results be announced?
Dixville Notch, New Hampshire is the Sunderland of America. The village, just 20 miles from the Canadian border, is known for being one of the first places to declare its results - often up to 24 hours before the rest of the country.
The village has a longstanding tradition of middle-of-the-night voting, whereby all the eligible voters in Dixville Notch gather at midnight in the ballroom of a ski resort, hours before most polling stations officially open.
When all registered voters have voted, sometimes one minute later, the result is announced.
Dixville Notch competes with several other towns and villages in New Hampshire for the honour of first to declare, including Hart's Location.
For the first time, real-time projections of how the candidates are faring in each state throughout the day will be provided. Slate and Vice News have partnered with Votecastr, a company ran by Obama and Bush campaign veterans, and expect to begin posting projections at 8am.
This marks a dramatic departure from current practice, where representatives from a consortium of news organisations (The Associated Press, ABC News, CBS News, CNN, Fox News and NBC News) huddle in a quarantine room without phones, poring over the earliest exit poll data but declining to release anything that points to an election result until all the polls in that state have closed.
How late do I need to stay up?
Stock up on coffee because it will be a late night.
The first polls will begin to close about 11pm GMT (6pm ET), but things will get a lot more interesting about 1am GMT (8pm ET) when they close in key battlegrounds like Pennsylvania. If Clinton doesn't take this state, it will be a massive blow to her campaign.
Polls begin to close in western states from about 3am GMT (10pm ET) onwards. Usually by around 4am GMT on November 9 (11pm ET November 8) on the East Coast it has become clear that one side has prevailed, although the result could come sooner than that.
In 2012 the Associated Press called the result for Barack Obama at 4.38am.
The magic number is 270 electoral college votes - each state, plus Washington DC, is awarded a certain number of electoral votes based roughly on size.
When the winner is beyond doubt, the losing candidate calls the winner to concede. Both Mrs Clinton and Mr Trump will give a speech: one to claim victory and the other admit defeat. But there is always the possibility - as happened in 2000 - that at the end of Election Day we may still not know who has won.
The result could either be too close to call without counting every vote or else legal battles over election procedures may delay the result or force a recount. It could even be a tie, with both candidates stuck at 269, in which case the House of Representatives would vote choose the next president.
How can I follow the action live from the UK?
At telegraph.co.uk, of course! We will keep you updated with our rolling live blog, results and analysis. We'll also have a live stream of all the action from 11pm GMT.
BBC News is broadcasting all the action live from Times Square between 11:15pm GMT and 6am GMT, presented by Andrew Neil and Katty Kay.
ITV will also be broadcasting live from 10:40pm, with Tom Bradby presenting a special programme live from Washington, DC while Sky News will have live results coverage from 10pm.
Why is the election on Tuesday November 8?
The election is in November because America was a predominantly agrarian society and November was the quietest for rural workers.
It is always traditionally on a Tuesday to allow people living in rural areas time to travel to towns and cities to vote, removing the need to travel on a Sunday.
It is always the first Tuesday after the first Monday to avoid the election falling on November 1st. This was to avoid clashing with All Saints Day and the day when businessmen traditionally did their accounting from the previous month.
What are the new voting laws?
Voting rules vary widely by state and sometimes by county, meaning some Americans can register the same day they vote, while others must do so weeks in advance.
Some can mail in a ballot, while others must stand in line at a polling place that might be miles from home. Some who forget photo identification can simply sign an affidavit and have their ballot count, while others must return with their ID within a few days or their vote doesn't matter.
Fourteen states have new voting and registration rules in place for this election, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at the NYU School of Law. Legal challenges have led to a multitude of recent court rulings that have blocked or struck down some provisions and upheld or reinstated others, scrambling the picture further.
Head to head | Hillary Clinton vs Donald Trump
Hillary Clinton
Secretary of State 2009–2013
Senator for New York 2001–2009; First Lady 1993–2001
Age: 69
Party: Democratic
Education:Wellesley College and then Yale Law School
Campaign slogan: Stronger Together
Strengths: Huge amounts of experience in government. Has the chance to make history as first US female president
Weaknesses: Faces accusations she is untrustworthy and out of touch. Pneumonia diagnosis has brought questions about her health to the forefront.
Secret service name: “Evergreen”
Quote: “Americans have fought their way back from tough economic times, but the deck is still stacked in favour of those at the top”
Donald Trump
Chairman & President, Trump Association
2016 Trump’s first official foray into politics
Age: 70
Party: Republican
Education: University of Pennsylvania
Campaign slogan: Make America Great Again
Strengths: Name recognition, deep pockets, and a no-holds-barred style which has excited the grassroots who believe he's a “fighter”
Weaknesses: His brash statements have caused controversy and accusations of incitement to violence from his supporters against protesters
Secret service name: “Mogul”
Quote: “I’m the most successful person to ever run for the presidency, by far”
Courtesy; The Telegraph
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