Live updates on the 2024 US election: Americans go to the polls

The dizzying presidential contest between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris hurtled toward an uncertain conclusion on Tuesday as millions of Americans went to the polls to choose between two starkly different visions for the country.

A race rocked by unprecedented events – two assassination attempts against Trump, US President Joe Biden's surprise withdrawal and Harris' meteoric rise – remained too close to call, even after billions of dollars in spending and months of hectic campaigning.

The first ballots cast on Election Day reflected the national divide. Overnight, the six registered voters in the small hamlet of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, split their votes between Harris and Trump shortly after midnight. Elsewhere on the East Coast, polls began opening at 7 a.m. in more than two dozen states.

Trump's campaign is hinting that he may declare victory on election night, even though millions of ballots still need to be counted, just as he did four years ago. The former president has repeatedly said that defeat could only be due to widespread fraud, repeating his false claims from 2020. The winner could not be known for days if margins in key states are as narrow as expected.

No matter who wins the White House, 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 be the first president in more than a century to win non-consecutive terms.

Opinion polls in the final days of the campaign have shown the candidates neck and neck in each of the seven states likely to determine the winner: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Reuters/Ipsos polls show a significant gender gap, with Harris leading among women by 12 percentage points and Trump winning among men by 7 percentage points.