On the US east coast it’s just past 6.30am, when polls opened in North Carolina, one of the crucial swing states that could hand the winner the presidency.

As US correspondent Farrah Tomazin reported recently, September’s Hurricane Helene has become a political flashpoint in North Carolina, a fast-growing, racially diverse state that Trump won by only 1.3 per cent in 2020 – his narrowest margin of victory that year.

How that natural disaster will affect voter turnout in the hours ahead is the big question.

What makes North Carolina such an important battleground is that it has 16 electoral college votes up for grabs, which is a fairly big haul on the path to the White House.

Polling stations also opened at 10pm AEDT in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire and Virginia, while booths across parts of Maine, Indiana and Kentucky are also now open to voters.

Earlier, the residents of the tiny New Hampshire town of Dixville Notch cast their ballots at midnight, local time.

If the result of the six-person vote was anything to go by, it will be a tight contest, with Donald Trump and Kamala Harris trying 3-all.

According to CNN, four Republicans and two undeclared voters participated in the ballot, and while the result won’t forecast the winner, it provides an early taste of what’s to come as the country wakes up.

Les Otten, one of the voters, described the novel process as “a civics lesson for the country.”

“If we can help people get out and understand that voting is an important part of their right as an American citizen, that’s perhaps the key to what we’re doing,” he said