Biden already has almost as many votes as Clinton did in 2016, exit poll suggests

Before election day, Mr Biden had already gained 64.7 million votes.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has already gained nearly as many votes as Hillary Clinton - hours before polls close.

Mr Biden, 77, is fighting for the top job in the United States against incumbent Donald Trump, 74.

According to the latest polls, Mr Biden is currently ahead of Mr Trump by four points.

Despite the coronavirus restrictions across America, US voters have been making sure to get their votes in, and by doing so they have made history.

According to the nonpartisan website US Elections project, by Monday evening, the day before the election, 35.7 million people had voted in person and 63.9 million had cast ballots by mail, giving a total of 99.7million - three quarters of the total number of votes for 2016.

It said that “nationally, voters have cast 72.3 per cent of the total votes counted in the 2016 general election.”

Read more: The US 2020 election results live

Mr Biden has also steamed ahead with the voting. According to the polls of how people voted early, 2016 Democratic nominee candidate Hillary Clinton received 65.8 million votes in total.

Prior to election day, Mr Biden already received 64.7 million votes.

Despite Mrs Clinton winning the popular vote - beating Mr Trump’s total by 2.9 million votes - Mr Trump scooped the victory by winning the electoral vote.

Mr Biden is so far doing better than Hillary Clinton did in the 2016 election (Getty Images)

There’s still several hours to go until the polling booths close, but things are already looking positive for Mr Biden.

The small New Hampshire town of Dixville Notch, which contained just five registered voters, unanimously voted for him early on Tuesday.

One of those voters was a lifelong Republican, who became the first American to cast a ballot on election day 2020.

Les Otten told reporters that even as he doesn’t “agree with [Biden] on a lot of issues”, he believes “it’s time to find what unites us, not what divides us".