Voting in the US election ended at 5 a.m. this morning when polling booths closed in Alaska and Hawaii.
From then on the major US television networks were free legally to broadcast their exit polls. Publication of them in the US before voting ends is not permitted, though exit poll information was being obtained by foreign journalists and published outside the US.
Counting of votes begins immediately. Many states have mixed systems of voting, however. Counting within states is devolved to a county level. Some counties held electronic voting, as a result of which votes will be counted almost instantaneously; some conducted paper ballots, and the results will be fed into computers; some counties held a mixture of both systems.
But if the election produces a clear win for either main candidate, results should be to hand from late morning onwards, Irish time.
The main east and west coast states are almost certain to opt for Senator John Kerry, with President Bush scoring strongly east of the Rockies and in southern states.
The battleground states of Florida and others in the mid-west such as Ohio, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan, plus Pennsylvania in the east are crucial to both candidates.
Mr Bush chalked up his first victory last night on the Pacific island of Guam, an Unincorporated Territory of the US, where voters cast 17,264 votes for him, as against 9,540 for Mr Kerry. Mr Ralph Nader got just 153.
The Reuters/Zogby opinion poll of likely voters in the battleground states gave the following result a few hours before the election proper: Colorado, Bush led 49-47 per cent; Florida, tied at 48 per cent; Iowa, Kerry 50-45 per cent; Michigan, Kerry 52-46 per cent; Minnesota, Kerry 51-45 per cent; Nevada, Bush 50-45 per cent; New Mexico, Kerry 51-48 per cent; Ohio, Bush 49-43 per cent; Pennsylvania, Kerry 50-46 per cent, and Wisconsin, Kerry 51-45 per cent.