First polls close in record-breaking US election

The first polls in the 2020 US election have officially closed, marking the beginning of the end of a record-breaking election day across America.

As of 6pm Eastern Time on Tuesday, polling stations in parts of Indiana and Kentucky are officially closed.

Voters who are still in line when polling closes will be permitted to cast their vote.

Millions of Americans on Tuesday joined the nearly 100 million people who have already cast ballots as they decide whether to hand Donald Trump another four-year term of bare-knuckle conservative populism or give Joe Biden’s promised methodical centre-left approach a try.

Mr Trump has gained ground on Democratic nominee and former vice president Joe Biden in recent days, including a 7-percentage point swing in Iowa that one poll shows the president now leading 48 per cent to 41 per cent after the duo were tied there just one month ago.

Mr Trump has dismissed most polls conducted by private firms and news organisations for over four years, noting correctly their battleground surveys were far off in 2016. 

"We're going to win this," Mr Trump said in Traverse City, Michigan on Monday night during his final batch of rallies. "They're not way ahead … We see the real numbers."

Though he is trailing in most swing states, the president kept his defiant bravado through his battleground state barnstorming, saying: “I think we’re going to win everything. I think tomorrow is going to be one of the greatest wins in the history of politics.”

The candidates and experts are also calling this election one of the clearest differences between the candidates’ policy stances, personalities and governing approach.

There’s Mr Trump: a self-described “outsider” even after four years as the leader of the free world and Washington’s Pied Piper, with lawmakers, federal agencies, lobbyists and private-sector contractors following his every tweet. 

Quick with an insult to try settling a score or grievance, the 45th president angered Democrats and some Republicans with his antics.

His hardline immigration policies included a border barrier he has not completed, despite some of his supporters’ claims, and a “travel ban” that denies entry to some individuals from Muslim-majority countries. He slashed tax rates, but Democrats complain the 2017 law that received only GOP support in Congress mostly helped wealthy individuals and corporations. He admitted publicly downplaying the coronavirus outbreak.

Then there’s Mr Biden: his campaign has played up his empathy after losing his first wife and young daughter in a car crash as a freshman senator, then his adult son, former Delaware attorney general Beau Biden, in 2015. 

The Biden camp says the former VP cares about helping people while Mr Trump cares only about helping himself, a charge the president has tried flipping on his foe over never-prosecuted allegations he and another son, Hunter Biden, used the office of the vice president for financial benefit.

The man who wants to become the 46th commander in chief is promising a return to the mostly orderly years of presidents past after four years of Mr Trump’s chaotic, made-for-television style. 

Mr Biden is promising to fix parts of the 2011 Affordable Care Act, while Mr Trump wants it terminated, and has vowed to reach across the aisle to congressional Republicans after his opponent has mostly governed with his conservative base in mind.