HELL..OR HISTORY

AFTER months of campaigning by both sides, the day that will decide America's future finally arrived yesterday... and the divisions tearing the country apart were there for all to see.

- CHRISTOPHER BUCKTIN

In the most fiercely contested election in recent US history, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump both secured crucial early wins by this morning but the race to choose the next president was far from over.

Americans went to the polls to choose between a Republican who has rooted his campaign in division, demonising immigrants, endless rhetoric and the baseless claims that the last election was rigged against him still ringing in the ears of supporters; or a Democrat aiming to become the first woman president of the US whose followers believe she strives to unite the country and instil fairness for all in a nation fractured by searing social inequality.

Across the country, queues started forming early at polling stations in what could be a record turnout for an election here.

Nowhere was the division more clear than on Trump's own doorstep yesterday in Palm Beach, Florida, home to his Mar-a-Lago mansion.

We joined the former president as he cast his vote at the Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center with wife Melania.

He insisted he was "very confident" of winning, claiming early signs were in his favour.

Trump said: "It won't even be close. But it's going to take a long time to certify."

He has repeatedly used the long wait time in tallying mail-in ballots to sow doubt about the integrity of the election. Pressed on whether he might concede if he loses, Trump said: "If I lose an election, if it's a fair election, I'm going to be the first one to acknowledge it, and I think it's, well, so far, I think it's been fair."