The state of the race - Why North Carolina shows how tight the US election really is

The narrow geographical focus of the US presidential election is becoming sharply apparent, with the first ballots to determine the next occupant of the White House starting to be mailed out to voters.

- Robert Tait

North Carolina started mailing out its ballots yesterday. But in what might be seen as a metaphor for the cliffhanging nature of the contest between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, what should have been standard protocol was delayed by a dispute over whether Robert F Kennedy Jr, hitherto running as an independent, should have a place on the ballot.

Kennedy, who suspended his campaign on 23 August and endorsed Trump, is suing the North Carolina board of elections over its refusal to remove his name from the ballot, in a state where surveys show the result on a knife-edge.

A judge on the state's supreme court ruled against him on Thursday but gave him 24 hours to appeal - resulting in a temporary delay to ballots being dispatched.

The postponement added suspense to a contest that could not be tighter, according to Guardian analysis of recent polls. In a state with 16 electoral college votes up for grabs but which a Democratic presidential candidate has won only once since 1980, Trump and Harris are both on 48.07%.