+++ US presidential election - live updates +++

All updates in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC)

0801 - Trump projected to win Michigan

0749 - Donald Trump addresses party supporters. "Sorry to keep you waiting. Complicated business," are the president-elect's opening words. He said he received a call from Clinton, congratulating the Republicans on their victory. "It is time for us to come together as one united people... I pledge to be president to all Americans. To those who didn't vote for me, I am reaching out to you to unify our country." he said. For those who did not support him, he said he was looking for guidance and help to lead the country. 

"Our's was not a campaign but a movement, comprised of people from all backgrounds and religions. Working together we will work on the urgent task of rebuilding America," Trump told his supporters. "The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer...We have a great economic plan. We wil double our growth and have great relationships with all other nations."

"No dream is too big, no challenge is too great," he insisted, adding "America will no longer settle for anything less than the best...Nothing we want is beyond our reach. It will be the best of everything for America. While we will always put America's interest first, we will deal fairly with everyone."

Addressing the international community, he said "We will see common ground, not hostility, partnership, not conflict."

0745 - Republican vice presidential candidate Mike Pence addressing crowd: This is an historic night. "I am deeply grateful to the American people for giving us this opportunity to serve," Pence said, adding, "It is my honor to introduce to you the president elect of the United States, Donald Trump."

0744 - CNN calls Arizona (11 electoral votes) for Donald Trump, assuring him of the presidency. 

0740 - CNN reports that Hillary Clinton has called Donald Trump to concede the election.

0734 - Donald Trump is elected America's 45th president: Associated Press.

0731 - Trump wins Wisconsin : US media.

0721 - German far-right party AfD's deputy Beatrix von Storch says, "Donald Trump's victory is a sign that citizens in the Western world want political change." Several things that Trump said during his election campaign could be seen critically, but as a political outsider, Trump needs to prove that he wants a new beginning for the US, von Storch added.

0717 - Stock futures in Europe fell sharply on Wednesday, with futures for Euro STOXX sliding by 4.2 percent and STOXX 600 by 4.1 percent

0713 - Foreign Affairs spokesman for the German Social Democrats, Niels Annen, has called for Berlin to deal with Trump in a self-confident manner. "Trump should not believe that he can treat us the way he treated his opponents in the election...We are a strong country, we are also self-confident," Annen told AFP news agency.

0707 - Clinton campaign manager John Podesta tells supporters at Clinton’s headquarters, "It has been  a long campaign and we can wait a little longer," he said, to cheers from the crowd. "They’re still counting votes and some states are too close to call. Everyone should go home get some sleep and we’ll have more information tomorrow… [Clinton] has done an amazing job and she is not done yet," he added.

Podesta's announcement means that Clinton will not concede the election just yet. She has a vanishingly thin path, if any, to winning the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency. She could, possibly, win the popular vote because of the large cache of votes in California, but without the necessary electoral votes that will be a pyrrhic victory. The only immediate question is whether Trump will address his supporters gathered at his campaign headquarters.

0659 - Clinton wins Maine and one congressional district, takes 3 electoral votes; Trump wins one district, gets one vote.

0651 - Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 index plummeted 5.4 percent, or 919.84 points, to close at 16,251.54 after a wild day of trading on Wednesday. 

0650 - Trump projected to win Alaska.

0648 - French far-right leader Marine Le Pen congratulates Trump on "becoming the new president of the US."

0639 -  Trump wins Pennsylvania.

0638 - German Defense Minister Ursula Von Der Leyen says development in US election is "huge shock." "I think Trump knows this was not vote for him but rather against Washington, against the establishment," she said.

0621 - Republicans maintain control of the US Senate by winning the hotly contested senate seat in Pennsylvania. Incumbent Pat Toomey has won the race, assuring the GOP majority, according to the Associated Press.

0602 - Markets in Asia tumble as Trump wins key states

0548 - Trump wins Florida, Ohio and North Carolina

German Green party chief Cem Özdemir says he's "very concerned" about the political situation in the US.

0536 - Republicans maintain control over House of Representatives.

0523 - Hillary Clinton projected winner in Nevada.

0513 - US stock futures plunge as Trump leads.

Mexicans are getting worried about Trump's victories until now. In this tweet, the user says, "If Trump wins in Florida, a state with a big Latino presence, it means this thing of electing idiots is in our genes."

0511 - Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada elected in key Senate race that will determine who controls the house of Congress.

0509 - Trump wins Georgia and Iowa.

0500 - Polls have closed in Alaska, the final state.

0435 - Multiple outlets are now projecting that Trump will take the key states of Georgia, Florida and Iowa. He also leads in Wisconsin. He holds an estimated 232 Electoral College votes to Clinton's 209.

0430 - US media are projecting the Northwestern state of Washington for Clinton. That would give her 12 more Electoral College votes. The currently tally is Trump 216, Clinton 209.

0425 - Utah has chosen Trump over a third-party candidate, US media project, which would give him an additional six votes.

0410 - Trump has won North Carolina, according to US media projections. That brings his total to 216 Electoral College votes versus Clinton's 197.

0401 - US media are projecting that Clinton has won California's 55 Electoral College votes, in addition to neighboring Oregon and the archipelago state of Hawaii. That would give her 197 votes to Trump's 201.

 

0400 - Polls have closed in the western states of California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii, as well as the rest of Idaho.

The only state remaining is Alaska, which has just three Electoral College votes.

0355 - The Associated Press has called the key state of Florida for Trump.

0345 - The race is still to be decided, but so far it has been an impressive showing for Trump.

He is clinging to a narrow lead in Florida with not too many votes left to count, he has been declared the winner in Ohio, where he won a larger share than many experts thought possible, and he is very competitive in Clinton's so-called firewall states of Michigan and Wisconsin.

If Trump holds onto Florida and wins at least one of those upper Midwestern states, he will be on the cusp of the 270 electoral votes needed.

0330 - Clinton is the projected winner of the swing states of Virginia and Colorado and also holds leads in Iowa and Pennsylvania. She has also taken New Mexico.

0325 - US media are projecting Missouri and the key state of Ohio for Trump, who currently holds an estimated 168 Electoral College votes to Clinton's 131. 

0315 - Clinton has won New Mexico while Trump has clinched Missouri, according to US media outlets. In a key congressional race, projections show Republican Richard Burr of North Carolina has been re-elected to the Senate. 

0305 - US media are projecting Montana for Trump. That would give him another three Electoral College votes. Utah, where a "third-party" candidate is challenging Trump from the right, remains too close to call.

0300 - Polls have closed in the swing states of Iowa and Nevada, as well as in right-wing Utah and Montana and much of Idaho.

0245 - Mexico's peso is in falling with the growing prospect of a Trump presidency. Reports have it down as much as 8.5 percent in early trading on Wednesday. Asian stocks were also down.

0230 - US media project the Northeastern state of Connecticut for Clinton, giving her 104 Electoral College votes to Trump's 137. He has won the Southern state of Louisiana.

0215 - Florida, which played the deciding role in the contested 2000 election, remains too close to call, with Trump leading Clinton 49.2 percent-47.7 percent with 93 percent of votes counted. He has a lead of nearly 150,000 votes, but the remaining districts to be counted tend to lean heavily Democratic.

The state has made a decision on at least one key issue.

0212 - US media are predicting wins in Texas and Clinton's former state of Arkansas to give him a 128-87 lead in the Electoral College.

0205 -  Republicans look likely to retain control of the House of Representatives, according to the latest projections by US media. That would be a boon to Trump and quite the opposite for Clinton, who watched Obama wrestle for most of his presidency with a hostile legislature.

0204 -  US media project that Clinton beat her fellow New Yorker Trump to take that state.

Trump also picked up several states where the polls have just closed, including North and South Dakota, Wyoming and Kansas.

Clinton currently leads the Electoral College count 97-84, according to media projections.   

0200 - Polls have now closed in an additional 14 states, including the up-for-grabs Michigan, Colorado and New Mexico, as well as in New York, Louisiana and Texas.

0145 - As expected, Clinton has won the New England state of Rhode Island, giving her 48 projected Electoral College votes to Trump's 60.

0130 - Polls have closed in the Southern state of Arkansas, where Clinton had served as first lady to her husband, Governor Bill Clinton.

Stay tuned for New York, Nebraska, Louisiana and the crucial states of Michigan, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona and Wisconsin.

0126 - Clinton and Trump are locked in a battle for the crucial swing state of Florida as the figures roll in. Both candidates are on 48.5 per cent of the vote, Clinton having a narrow edge according to US media.

0117 - DW's Richard Walker outside Trump HQ: "The word I heard most was 'nervous' - people were very concerned this might not go their way."

Walker tweeted earlier that media, including DW, were denied entry to the Trump campaign party.

Meanwhile, DW's Ines Pohl says the Senate would also be important for Clinton, adding that a key Missouri seat could go to the Democrats.

0105 - US media are projecting seven states to go to Clinton.

Clinton won Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware and the District of Columbia, projections say.

Trump has apparently won Oklahoma, as expected, and currently has a 60-44 in the projected Electoral College vote.

0100 - Polls have now closed in an additional 15 states, including all important Pennsylvania, as well as in much of Michigan.

Other polls closed in western Florida, parts of North and South Dakota, much of Texas and in the District of Columbia.

At this point, polls have closed in most of the crucial territories, with cuts-both-ways Colorado still to come, as well as Arizona and New Mexico.

All of the battleground states - Florida, North Carolina and Ohio chief among them - remain too close to call, with the tally constantly flipping as new votes from various precincts come in.

0045 - In addition to the presidential campaign, several seats are up for grabs in the Senate, where Republicans currently have a 54-46 majority.

Though 33 seats are up for grabs, only eight are genuinely competitive.

If Clinton wins the White House, the Democrats will need to win four Senate seats to gain a majority, because a 50-50 tie would be broken by the new vice president, Tim Kaine. If Clinton loses, the Democrats need to win five seats in order to gain a 51-49 Senate advantage. The Senate confirms presidential appointments - including Supreme Court justices.

0030 - Polls have closed in the Rust Belt battleground of Ohio, but hours were extended at some stations in similarly important North Carolina after reports of technical problems with the voter rolls.

Voting has also ended in the Appalachian state of West Virginia. US media have projected those five Electoral College votes to go to Trump, giving him a lead of 24-3 early on.

0002 - US media have projected that the states of Indiana and Kentucky will go to Trump and Clinton will take Vermont, giving the Republican an early lead of 19 Electoral College votes to just three for the former senator from New York. 

Clinton's primary opponent, the independent Bernie Sanders, represents Vermont in the Senate.

0000 - Polls have closed in the rest of Indiana and Kentucky, as well as in right-leaning Georgia and South Carolina, left-looking Vermont and the swing states of New Hampshire, Virginia - where Clinton's running mate, Tim Kaine, was governor and currently serves as senator - and must-win Florida.

The next round of polls close at 0030, with the important states of North Carolina and Ohio on the line, along with West Virginia.

DW's Ines Pohl reports that more African-Americans and Latinos turned out to vote than had been expected - possibly a good sign for former Secretary of State Clinton. "It's all about Florida," Pohl said. "If Clinton wins Florida, then it's essentially the White House."

Get a roundup of results here.

2345 - DW and other foreign outlets have been denied access to the venue where Trump and his supporters are watching the election results.

2300 - Polls have closed in parts of the Midwestern state of Indiana and neighboring Kentucky.

Indiana, home to 6.6 million people who largely live below the national median income, went to Barack Obama with the narrowest margin in 2008 before flipping in force for the Republican Mitt Romney in 2012.

This year, Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, is the state's governor. He had a 48 percent approval rating as of summer.

Kentucky was also projected to go to Trump and Pence.

2235 - A spokesman said former President George W Bush, whose brother Jeb was driven out early from the Republican primary campaign by Trump, voted for neither candidate. Freddy Ford said Bush, whose eight years saw two wars and a financial crash, had voted for Republicans in legislative and regional races.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, himself a second-tier primary opponent of Trump's, also opted to vote against his fellow Republican.

2210 - News agencies are reporting long lines and machine malfunctions at several polling stations. The Philadelphia Inquirer called lines in the US's post-revolution capital "unprecedented," and Twitter users in the "Live Free or Die" state of New Hampshire posted predawn pictures of lines stretching outside of polling stations in the city of Manchester.

Both campaigns have expressed concerns over the possibility of irregularities. Democrats say Republican officials could use old tricks to suppress minority voters after a 2013 Supreme Court decision struck down a federal oversight law for regions with a history of such tactics. A lawsuit in the tossup state of North Carolina has called for authorities to keep the polls longer after a series of problems with electronic voter rolls.

The Trump campaign has said that the system is generally "rigged" against the well-known sponsor of beauty pageants. Earlier in the day, he told the right-wing broadcaster Fox News that, before his campaign accepts the results of the presidential election, "we're going to see how things play out today and hopefully we won't have to worry about it."

2200 - A Reuters/Ipsos Election Day poll has found a strong outsider sentiment among the more than 10,000 voters surveyed across the country. The poll found a deep desire for an authoritarian figure to wrestle control from the US's other dominant structures, as well as widespread mistrust of the media and a sense of disillusionment with the 20th-century United States.

According to the poll, 75 percent of voters agree with the statement that "America needs a strong leader to take the country back from the rich and powerful." Seventy-two percent agree that "the American economy is rigged to advantage the rich and powerful." Fifty-two percent that feel "it is increasingly hard for someone like me to get ahead in America."

Perhaps most telling, 57 percent agree with the statement that "more and more, I don't identify with what America has become."

A separate poll, conducted for the Associated Press news agency and TV stations by Edison Research, found that seven in 10 Americans think that unauthorized immigrants should be allowed to stay in the United States - a stark contrast to the prevailing sentiment of Trump's campaign. More than half opposed the multiply bankrupted billionaire's plan to build a wall on the US's southern border. Just one in 10 said immigration was an important issues for the United States.

2140 - A Nevada judge rejected the Trump campaign's request for records from polling places in the US's gambling capital, Las Vegas. The disgraced reality show host's campaign had alleged irregularities over the weekend, when polling hours were extended at multiple locations to allow people who had been standing in line the opportunity to vote.

Clark County District Court Judge Gloria Sturman ruled that releasing the records could expose poll workers to "public attention, ridicule and harassment."

Nevada's secretary of state will investigate the Trump campaign's complaint, the judge said.

1625 - Donald Trump has voted in Manhattan. He was accompanied by his wife, Melania, daughter Ivanka and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Trump said he felt confident about the outcome, calling it "a tremendous honor" to be casting his ballot.

1335 - Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton cast her ballot at a school near her home in Chappaqua, New York. "It is the most humbling feeling. I know how much responsibility goes with this," Clinton said. "So many people are counting on the outcome of this election, what it means for our country."

1140 - In Berlin, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the caustic tone of the 2016 presidential campaign would leave a "difficult legacy" for the winner, who will have to take the reins of "a more or less divided country." He said Germans and Americans alike "are glad that this special election campaign is coming to an end." Steinmeier has frequently criticized Trump.  

1100 - Polling stations opened in nine states on the East Coast. The Associated Press reports that about 45 million people had cast their votes ahead of Election Day in states that allow early voting.

Below are the must-win states for the candidates.