By now, polls will close Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Vermont and virginbut these are not swing states, so the results will be predictable.

But voting will also close in the first swing state of the night, Georgia. Victory for either candidate could provide a strong indication of where the election could go.

Georgia was only won by Joe Biden last time. It has also become the subject of false claims by Trump, who is accused of criminally conspiring to overturn his 2020 defeat.

The candidate with more votes than any other in Georgia will get a crucial 16 out of 538 votes in the electoral college system.

Harris and Trump want a majority of 270 electoral college votes to win the White House. That matters more than the “popular vote” or the support they get at the national level.

Soon after, at 19:30 EST (00:30 GMT), polls close in three other states, including North Carolina. Outside of the presidential race, there has been enormous interest in the state gubernatorial race, which pits state Attorney General Josh Stein against Trump-endorsed candidate Mark Robinson, whose campaign has been rocked by scandals.

Polls close at the same time in Ohiowhere Trump’s running mate, JD Vance, is a senator. Meanwhile, the two campaigns will gather at their headquarters for the evening — which we know will be in West Palm Beach, Floridain Trump’s case.

At this point, some states may begin to be “called out” by US media outlets. They use models to project, or call, which way a state voted, even before the total vote count has been completed.

This happens when they believe a candidate has gained a lead that cannot be overcome by their opponent. In some tightly contested swing states, this could take a long time.

The models used by the media are based on a variety of data, such as exit polls and actual votes counted by officials. The BBC obtains this data from a firm called Edison Research.