Kamala Harris ((left), Donald Trump

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Trump, Harris notch first state wins as US polls close
By AAP – Jarrett Renshaw, Gabriella Borter, Joseph Ax and Helen Coster in Philadelphia

Republican Donald Trump has won 15 states in the US presidential election while Democrat Kamala Harris has captured four states and Washington, DC, Edison Research projects, but the contest remains undecided with critical battleground states unlikely to be called for hours or even days.

Tuesday’s early results were as anticipated, with the contest expected to come down to seven swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Opinion polls showed the rivals neck-and-neck in all seven going into election day.

As of 9.30pm ET (1.30pm on Wednesday AEDT), polls had closed in 41 states and Washington, DC.

Trump had 162 electoral votes to Harris’s 81 electoral votes, but both still had multiple paths to victory.

A candidate needs a total of 270 votes in the state-by-state electoral college to claim the presidency.

In Georgia, Trump had opened up a 52 per cent to 47 per cent lead with 77 per cent per cent of the estimated vote tallied, according to Edison.

Control of both chambers of Congress is also up for grabs.

Democrats had only a narrow path to defend their Senate majority after Republican Jim Justice flipped a West Virginia seat on Tuesday.

The House of Representatives looked like a toss-up.

In Florida, a ballot measure that would have guaranteed abortion rights failed to reach the 60 per cent threshold needed to pass, according to Edison, leaving a six-week ban in place.

Nine other states have abortion-related measures on the ballot.

Nearly three-quarters of voters say American democracy is under threat, according to national exit polls from Edison, underscoring the depth of polarisation in a nation where divisions have only grown starker during a fiercely competitive race.

Trump employed increasingly apocalyptic rhetoric while stoking unfounded fears that the election system cannot be trusted.

Harris warned that a second Trump term would threaten the underpinnings of American democracy.

Hours before polls closed, Trump claimed on his Truth Social site without evidence that there was “a lot of talk about massive CHEATING” in Philadelphia, echoing his false claims in 2020 that fraud had occurred in large, Democratic-dominated cities.

In a subsequent post, he also asserted there was fraud in Detroit.

“I don’t respond to nonsense,” Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey told Reuters.

A Philadelphia city commissioner, Seth Bluestein, replied on X: “There is absolutely no truth to this allegation. It is yet another example of disinformation. Voting in Philadelphia has been safe and secure.”

Trump, whose supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, after he claimed the 2020 election was rigged, voted earlier near his home in Palm Beach, Florida.

“If I lose an election, if it’s a fair election, I’m gonna be the first one to acknowledge it,” Trump told reporters.

His campaign has suggested he may declare victory on election night even while millions of ballots have yet to be counted, as he did four years ago.

Millions of Americans waited in orderly lines to cast ballots, with only sporadic disruptions reported across a handful of states, including several non-credible bomb threats that the FBI said appeared to originate from Russian email domains.

Trump was watching the results at his Mar-a-Lago club before speaking to supporters at a nearby convention centre.

Harris was due to address students at Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington where Harris was an undergraduate.

“To go back tonight to Howard University, my beloved alma mater, and be able to hopefully recognise this day for what it is, is really full circle for me,” Harris said in a radio interview.

Tuesday’s vote capped a dizzying race churned by unprecedented events, including two assassination attempts against Trump, President Joe Biden’s surprise withdrawal and Harris’ rapid rise.

No matter who wins, history will be made.

Harris, 60, the first female vice-president, would become the first woman, Black woman and South Asian American to win the presidency.

Trump, 78, the only president to be impeached twice and the first former president to be criminally convicted, would also become the first president to win non-consecutive terms in more than a century.

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Early results could be released soon in the key swing state of Georgia as polls begin closing in the race to see whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris will be the next US president.

As expected, Trump has won in Kentucky and Indiana, while Kamala Harris has taken Vermont, the BBC’s US partner, CBS, is projecting.

The first wave of exit polls has been released, with voters naming the state of democracy and the economy as the most important issues for them.

Whichever way it goes the result will be historic – either giving America its first woman president or marking a seismic political comeback for Trump.

The candidate that wins 270 electoral votes or more becomes the President. A total of 538 electoral votes are allocated within 50 states and Washington DC.

Trump currently leads with 93 electoral votes while Harris have 35.

A high turnout has been predicted, but the outcome may not be known for several days if the results are as close as polls have indicated.

Whoever wins the White House may have their hands tied by Congress, which is also up for grabs in Tuesday’s vote.

Democrats have a slim majority in the Senate, while Republicans narrowly control the House of Representatives.

Republicans took a step towards winning control of the Senate on Tuesday night by wresting a seat in West Virginia from the Democrats.

But neither party seemed to have an advantage in the House.

Polls have closed in Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania – three of the seven swing states expected to determine the outcome. The others are Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin.