US election live updates: Kentucky and Indiana first votes announced as Trump prepares to talk in Florida

From Canberra reporter Ellen Ransley:

US ambassador to Australia Caroline Kennedy earlier said the alliance was unbreakable and the close relationship wouldn’t change - no matter who became president.

The daughter of former president John F. Kennedy said it was a historic election, with a clear choice between candidates.

“Australia is our most trusted capable ally and that’s going to continue. We’ve got AUKUS, we’ve got incredible trade, we’ve got critical minerals,” she said.

“So there’s just so many things to bring us together as well as a love of elections, US politics and sports.”

She said while she’s “not supposed to talk about politics” as an ambassador, she noted “the issues on the ballot this time are important to women”.

“She (Harris) has made that really clear. Donald Trump is focusing more on immigration,” she said.

She also noted that the big unknown in the US was turnout, given they don’t have mandatory voting like in Australia.

“We need to get people to the polls, and I think that knowing how my children feel, the younger vote is going to really be determinative in this election. So that’s an important change,” she said.

Kentucky and Indiana have announced the first portion of their votes.

Both states, which are traditionally Republican, are staying red.

Eight counties in Indiana are already being projected as a likely win for Mr Trump.

Mr Trump currently holds 60 per cent of the votes counted.

Allen County in Indiana is likely to go to Mr Trump, however, the count there is significantly closer.

In Kentucky, Mr Trump is leading with 65.9 per cent and Ms Harris is holding 32.9 per cent.

Both states still have a large portion of votes to count.

Kamala Harris and her team are reportedly working on a speech for Tuesday night.

However, it is understood that they are preparing for multiple scenarios including if former President Donald Trump calls the election before votes are counted.

Ms Harris has made clear she will talk tonight regardless of where the country is at in the vote count process.

Sources have said Donald Trump is preparing to speak tonight, even if the election has not been called.

Supporters are preparing to gather en masse at the Palm Beach Convention Center near Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.

When speaking to reporters after he voted in Florida, Mr Trump said he was not aware of plans to speak or not speak and said he had not written a speech.

He also told reporters he would not tell his supporters to refrain from violence after the result because his supporters are not violent people.

Philadelphia County, the largest county in Pennsylvania, has received around 182,00 early votes.

From those, between 75,000 - 100,000 will be released around an hour after the poll closes.

The state has said things are on track but warned they might need significant time to confirm a result.

Voters were asked to select the most important issue in the US that influenced their voting choice.

The options were: Abortion, the economy, foreign policy, the state of democracy and immigration.

Early exit poll issues result

• The state of democracy (35 per cent)
• The economy (31 per cent)
• Abortion (14 per cent)
• Immigration (11 per cent)
• Foreign policy (4 per cent)

Once more traditionally Republican states close their votes in the coming hours, the data is expected to change.

The first exit poll data has been revealed painting an image of how Americans have voted.

Pollsters Edison Research conducts exit polls in counties across America to find out what factors are most important to voters.

The early data shows the two strongest factors for Americans voting decisions are:

• Democracy
• The economy

Other less significant factors included abortion, immigration and foreign policy.

The polls do not ask how people voted. However, Kamala Harris has campaigned strongly for democracy, whilst Donald Trump focused more on the economy.

The first polls are set to close around 10am AEDT, and we should start to see some early results flowing in then. Early results may go some way to determining how soon we’ll see the outcome.

​Check out our five-minute guide to election day here. ​

Multiple states are now blaming Russia for attempting to interfere in the election.

Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger has given an update after “Russian”, bomb threats sparked evacuations

“Georgia is not going to be intimidated,” he said.

“Russia decided to pick on the wrong Georgia, we are not going to be intimidated.”

Michigan has also confirmed they have received multiple bomb threats which they too believe have “Russian origins”.

So far all bomb threats have been found to be “non-credible”.