Just days out from the vote, the 2024 United States presidential election is shaping up to be one of the closest in living memory.
and remain neck-and-neck in the polls, as people worldwide watch on with anticipation to see which one of them will become the next occupant of the White House.
Here’s how to keep across the action from Australia in real-time.
When is the US election?
The US presidential election is being held on Tuesday 5 November local time, meaning most of the action will take place on Wednesday 6 November Australian time.
How to watch live US election coverage in Australia
SBS World News presenter Janice Petersen will host a US Election special, featuring coverage from SBS’s American broadcast partner, PBS News.
Co-anchors Amna Nawaz and Geoff Bennett will present live and continuous coverage from every jurisdiction as polls close for the presidential, vice presidential, House of Representatives, and Senate elections.
The special begins at 10.30am AEDT on Wednesday 6 November and can be watched live on free-to-air TV or .
What about online news coverage?
Live coverage of the US election will be available on the and .
There you can also find a raft of explainers, analyses, and features covering everything from , to on key issues, whether could help decide the result, and .
If podcasts are more your thing, you can listen to SBS News’ US Election Unplugged series .
When will US election results start coming in?
The election results won’t start coming in until after the polls close, which varies across US states and timezones.
The polls will begin closing in the eastern states from 10am AEDT on Wednesday, with early results filtering through some time after.
By 12pm AEDT, voting will have ceased in almost 30 states — including of Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania — as well as the District of Columbia.
The polls in the three remaining battleground states will have closed by 2pm AEDT — and in all other states by 5pm AEDT.
The results from states that are typically considered “safe”, such as New York for the Democrats and Texas for the Republicans, will likely become clearer sooner than battleground states.
When will we know who won the US election?
If Harris or Trump holds a significant lead over the other, the election result may become clear in a matter of hours.
But given how tight the race is, the winner may not be declared on the night.
Want more politics? You can stream poignant political documentaries in the SBS On Demand ‘Politics and Power’ collection and keep up with daily news bulletins in the .
Stay up to date with the US Election and more with the .
