US election 2024: American voters head to polls - in pictures

A man cast his ballot in the 2024 US presidential election, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The contest will be won by either Vice President Kamala Harris or former president Donald Trump. Reuters

Mary Gallant waves to motorists as she encourages them to vote in New Orleans, Louisiana. AFP

Republican nominee for vice president JD Vance voting in Cincinnati, Ohio. AFP

A woman checks in to vote at a polling station at Colebrook Academy and Elementary School in Colebrook, New Hampshire. AFP

Voters line up to cast their ballots in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. AFP

Kristin Scruggs votes at the 146-year-old Buck Creek school in Perry, Kansas. AP

A person arrives to cast their vote at Dr Martin Luther King Jr School, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Reuters

A worker places a sign outside a polling station in Burnsville, North Carolina. AFP

A worker prepares to open a polling station in Dearborn, Michigan. AP

Voters queue in Scranton, Pennsylvania. AP

A queue builds up outside a polling station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. AFP

Signs are displayed to instruct voters in Asheville, North Carolina. Reuters

Voters wait to make their mark on the ballot paper in Smyrna, Georgia. Bloomberg

A polling station is open in Dekalb County, Georgia. EPA

A boy watches his father voting in Asheville. Reuters

A roll of stickers in Dearborn. AP

Latest updates: Follow our full coverage on the US election

Polls have opened in America's knife-edge presidential election, with voters on the East Coast among the first to deliver their verdict early on Tuesday.

The first polling stations began to receive voters at 5am Eastern Time (2pm Abu Dhabi time) in Vermont. In a staggered start, voting began in parts of Virginia, New York and Maine from 6am local time.

While more than 80 million Americans have cast their ballots before November 5, mainly by post, the frenetic last-ditch campaigning by Donald Trump and Kamala Harris showed how much remained at stake ahead of election day itself.

Balloting continues throughout the day until the first polling stations close at 6pm in Indiana and Kentucky (3am UAE time). The first results from battleground states will start to come in after polls close in Georgia at 7pm and North Carolina at 7.30pm. Voting ends in Pennsylvania at 8pm.

Some states have introduced measures to speed up the counting of votes after a nail-biting 2020 election took five days to be called for Democrat Joe Biden.