More polls close in final hours of US presidential election

Republican nominee Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Kamala Harris are laying claim Tuesday to successive US states as additional states close their polls.

Closures have extended across wide swathes of the East Coast and into the Central and Southwestern US as Trump has notched up state wins granting him 177 Electoral College votes to Harris' 99.

Polls have now closed in the key swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, as well as over three dozen others.

The Associated Press most recently declared Harris the winner in New Jersey and New York, while Trump secured victories in North Dakota, South Dakota, Louisiana, Texas, Wyoming and Nebraska.

Either candidate needs to win 270 Electoral College votes to claim victory. Electors are allocated to states based on their population, and most states give all of their delegates to whichever candidate wins the state in the general vote.

The winner-take-all model is not followed in Nebraska and Maine, however, which instead allocate their votes based on the outcome in congressional districts, as well as the state's popular vote winner.

Poll closures will continue at half-hour or hour intervals, with the final closures in Hawaii at midnight Eastern Time (0500GMT), followed by Alaska at 1 a.m. Eastern Time (0600GMT).

The race is all but certain to come down to the seven key battleground states -- Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Wisconsin -- where the nominees are facing narrow contests with spreads well within the margins of error in several polls.

Both candidates spent the final week before the election campaigning hard in those states, with Harris visiting Pennsylvania for a series of rallies in multiple cities Monday. Trump spent the day there before a late-night rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

It is highly unlikely that major media organizations will declare a victor Tuesday night, as had been the norm up until 2020, due to the closeness of the races in the battleground states.