Millions of Americans cast their ballots – as it happened

Hello, election live blog readers, the country is abuzz and the first polls close at the top of the hour. Stick with the blog for all the news as this momentous evening and night unfolds, we’ll bring you developments as they happen – 24 hours a day.

Here’s where things stand:

• Abbas Alawieh, one of the co-founders of the Uncommitted movement, which as a national group declined to endorse Kamala Harris for the White House, has just told interviewers on MSNBC that he’s voted for the vice-president in this election. He said this “is a moment of deep pain and frustration” over the war in Gaza and the ongoing sale of US weapons to Israel and yet he was “trying to do the politically savvy thing”.

• Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person who has become Donald Trump’s most prominent and powerful backer, cast his vote in Texas, in Cameron county, Texas, where his SpaceX’s headquarters are, near Hawthorne, a rural town north of Houston. Earlier in the day, the New York Times reported that Musk would spend the evening of the election with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.

• Kamala Harris made an unexpected stop at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington DC this afternoon, where staffers and organizers were phone banking to get voters to the ballot boxes, in a last push before polls close. According to the reporters trailing her today, Harris arrived carrying a box of Doritos, her favorite campaign trail snack. “We have so much work to do,” she said.

• The FBI said they are aware of bomb threats to polling locations in several states, many of which, they said, appear to “originate from Russian email domains”. The bureau said in a statement that none of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far. “Election integrity is among the FBI’s highest priorities” the statement reads.

• A man was arrested by US Capitol police officers at the Capitol visitor center in Washington DC, police said. The man “smelled like fuel” and had “a torch” and “a flare gun” when he was stopped by officers during a screening process at the center, police said.

• Tim Walz spoke to reporters before boarding a plane from Pennsylvania to Washington DC during which the Democratic party vice-presidential nominee said he was “feeling good about this” election. He also pledged to “shake hands and work for the winner” if Harris loses. Earlier he said the contest for the White House was “razor close”.

• Donald Trump has been told by some advisers that he should prematurely declare victory on election night if he’s sufficiently ahead of Kamala Harris in key battleground states like Pennsylvania, according to people close to him, though whether he will heed that advice remains unclear. The consensus view is that Trump has nothing to lose by claiming he has won if he has a several-hundred-thousand-vote advantage in Pennsylvania or if his internal pollsters think a victory is plausible even if the results are not fully confirmed on Tuesday night.

• Before the polls opened this morning, more than 80 million Americans had already voted and cast early ballots, with just under 45 million voting early in person and about 38 million voting early by mail.

• Trump and Harris have tied with three votes each in Dixville Notch, the tiny New Hampshire town which traditionally kicks off voting on election day.

• Trump and his wife, Melania, voted in Florida, where he said he felt “very confident”. Asked if he would call on his supporters not to engage in violence, Trump said: “I don’t have to tell them that there will be no violence,” adding his supporters “are not violent people”.

• Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, cast his ballot in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he told reporters his attitude “is the best way to heal the rift in the country is to try to govern the country as well as we can”.

• Kamala Harris, who voted by mail ahead of election day, said her first order of business if elected to the White House would be “bringing down the cost of living for folks”.

• Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger said “non-credible” bomb threats that led to the temporary closure of two polling stations in Fulton county originated from Russia.

• The FBI warned Americans that two new fake videos bearing the agency’s name and insignia were being “misused in promoting false narratives surrounding the election”.

• A bipartisan coalition of 51 attorneys general across US states and territories urged people to remain peaceful and pre-emptively condemning “any acts of violence related to the results”.