US Election: What time will the winner be announced?

Americans will go to the polls on 8 November to elect the 45th US President - Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.

Voting begins at 6am on the day and the first polls will close at midnight UK time (00:00 GMT; 19:00 EST), with the first projections from states following shortly afterwards based on exit polls.

Sky News' special coverage starts two hours before, at 10pm.

The two candidates need to win 270 of the 538 Electoral College votes to clinch the White House.

The earliest time the election could be "called" for one of the candidates by US TV networks is likely to be around 4am UK time - both the 2008 and 2012 elections were called for Barack Obama at around that time.

Here is a list of the timings for polls closing on election day (UK time)

Midnight 

Georgia: 16 votes
Indiana: 11 votes
Kentucky: 8 votes
South Carolina: 9 votes
Vermont: 3 votes
Virginia: 13 votes

0.30am 

North Carolina: 15 votes
Ohio: 18 votes
West Virginia: 5 votes

1am 

Alabama: 9 votes
Connecticut: 7 votes
Delaware: 3 votes
District of Columbia: 3 votes
Florida: 29 votes
Illinois: 20 votes
Maine: 4 votes
Maryland: 10 votes
Massachusetts: 11 votes
Mississippi: 6 votes
Missouri: 10 votes
New Hampshire: 4 votes
New Jersey: 14 votes
Oklahoma: 7 votes
Pennsylvania: 20 votes
Rhode Island: 4 votes
Tennessee: 11 votes

1.30am

Arkansas: 6 votes

2am 

Arizona: 11 votes
Colorado: 9 votes
Kansas: 6 votes
Louisiana: 8 votes
Michigan: 16 votes
Minnesota: 10 votes
Nebraska: 5 votes
New Mexico: 5 votes
New York: 29 votes
North Dakota: 3 votes
South Dakota: 3 votes
Texas: 38 votes
Wisconsin: 10 votes
Wyoming: 3 votes

3am

Iowa: 6 votes
Montana: 3 votes
Nevada: 6 votes
Utah: 6 votes

4am

California: 55 votes
Hawaii: 4 votes
Idaho: 4 votes
Oregon: 7 votes
Washington: 12 votes

6am 

Alaska: 3 votes

:: US Election: Polling and battlegrounds

Once the election is called, the defeated candidate will call the victor to concede the presidential race, before both make speeches during the night to their supporters.

But there is a possibility that the result could still not be known at the end of election day, as happened with George W Bush and Al Gore in 2000.

If the result is too close to call without counting every vote, of if legal battles over election procedures are taking place, it could delay the result or force a recount.

:: US Election: The states that will decide the outcome

But if neither candidate has a majority of Electoral College votes, the result would be sent to the House of Representatives. Delegations from each state would then cast one vote, with the candidate winning the most states declared the winner.

Image Caption:Wristbands for early voters at a polling station in Chicago

This has happened on two occasions:

:: Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr failed to win a majority of Electoral College votes in 1801. After 36 successive votes in the House, Mr Jefferson was declared the winner.

:: John Quincy Adams beat Andrew Jackson on the first ballot in the House in 1824, despite losing the popular vote.