We’re about 35 minutes away from the first polls closing in east coast states, and voting will continue wrap up in states further west in the hours to come.

Here’s a list of when polls are scheduled to close in the state’s voting on this Super Tuesday. All times eastern:

• Alabama: 7pm local, 8pm ET

• Alaska: 8pm local, 12am ET

• Arkansas: 7.30pm local, 8.30pm ET

• California: 8pm local, 11pm ET

• Colorado: 7pm local, 9pm ET

• Maine: 8pm local

• Massachusetts: 8pm local

• Minnesota: 8pm local, 9pm ET

• North Carolina: 7.30pm local

• Oklahoma: 7pm local, 8pm ET

• Tennessee: 7pm local, 8pm ET

• Texas: 7pm local, 8pm ET, except in the state’s far west, which is on mountain time and where polls will close at 9pm ET

• Utah: 9pm local, 11pm ET

• Vermont: 7pm ET

• Virginia: 7pm ET

With Joe Biden a shoo-in for the Democratic nomination, and Donald Trump leading all state-level polls, don’t be surprised if the Associated Press calls the winner of many of these states shortly after polls close.

Millions of voters have cast ballots today in primaries across the United States. Here are some of the latest images from the newswires:

Joe Biden has won Iowa’s Democratic caucus, the Associated Press reports.

The president has triumphed in every state that has voted so far in the Democratic nomination process, as incumbent presidents typically do. For Republicans, Iowa was the first state to vote, with Donald Trump sweeping their caucuses held in January.

With about six hours left until polls close in California, officials are growing increasingly concerned that turnout in the state’s primary will end up being abysmal.

Most registered residents in the state expressed lukewarm feelings about voting, according to a survey published in late February by the Public Policy Institute of California. Even though 84% of responders said they believed casting a vote was “very important”, just 14% said they were enthusiastic about participating.

Only about 8% of California’s 22 million voters had returned their mail-in ballots a week before voting day, Politico reported. The numbers fall even more for younger voters between the ages of 18 and 34, a subset that typically boosts progressive candidates and priorities. Only 2% in that age group had turned in their ballots during that same time period.

Analysts said the widespread voter apathy could benefit Republicans, especially in the Senate race where the GOP candidate, Steve Garvey, is vying for second place behind Democratic frontrunner Adam Schiff.

“Looking at the returns thus far, we can see the beginnings of a low-turnout election, potentially with a relatively higher Republican turnout,” Paul Mitchell wrote on Capitol Weekly in February.

He continued:

The electorate is also incredibly old, with seniors being only 25% of the electorate, but 57% of returns. Voters 18-34, also 25% of the electorate, are only 8% of returns. White voters are also outperforming – while they are 55% of registrants, they are 70% of returns, and while Latinos are at a record high 28% of voters, they are at just 15% of ballots returned.

The impacts of these turnout numbers on campaigns can be massive. Lower turnout is correlated with more volatile election outcomes. Will this have an impact on a big race like the US Senate contest? Maybe. A higher Republican turnout would point to a race in which Steve Garvey makes it to the General election, closing out the election for two of the three main Democratic challengers.

A low turnout election, especially with relatively higher Republican participation, could also cause many legislative and congressional races in heavily Democratic districts to be decided in the primary when a Republican makes the runoff.

The quickly organized push for a protest vote against Joe Biden over his handling of the Israel-Gaza war faces a test of its momentum this evening, with multiple Super Tuesday states having a ballot option to vote for nobody.

The effort first ran in Michigan, where Democratic voters delivered more than 100,000 votes for “uncommitted” to send a message to the US president that they want a permanent ceasefire. Other states saw the results there and started working on the ground, standing up voter outreach to spread the word.

Though there are a few Democrats running against Biden depending on the state, his strongest opposition yet this primary could come from the uncommitted campaign. Supporters want to keep the pressure on Biden via the ballot box to make him move on Gaza.

Minnesota’s uncommitted campaign is seen as the most likely to bring in a good number of protest votes, given the state’s large Muslim community, high voter turnout and progressive history. Massachusetts and Colorado have also organized around the idea, so we’re keeping an eye on their numbers in Tuesday’s results.

Other Super Tuesday states have a version of uncommitted as well: Alabama, Iowa, North Carolina and Tennessee.

Organizers in Minnesota went to mosques to let people know of the uncommitted option and ran an ad in the state’s largest newspaper, all while working the phones and social media to share the idea.

After Super Tuesday, the movement’s next big bet is Washington state, where already the state’s largest labor union endorsed uncommitted. Washington votes on 12 March.

Greetings from Donald Trump’s election watch party (or maybe that should be coronation), as the Republican frontrunner is expected to sweep the board on Super Tuesday.

Media are gathering beneath the Corinthian-style columns, crystal chandeliers and gold leaf decor of the ballroom at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. Rows of gold chairs and some white cloth tables are arranged on the marble floor. Big TV screens proclaim: “Make America great again!” There are 13 American flags on stage behind a “Trump: Make America great again 2024” lectern.

The mood is likely to be very different from the night here in November 2022 when Trump announced he was running for president again. On that occasion the mood was subdued after a disappointing showing by Republicans in the midterm elections. Trump’s victory in a Republican presidential primary against Florida governor Ron DeSantis looked far from assured. He came over as an ageing comic whose punchlines no longer land.

Expect a different Trump tonight – triumphant, braggadocious, claiming vindication. It remains to be seen if we’ll get Trump the Magnanimous, congratulating Nikki Haley on a race well run, or Trump the Gloater, punching down at his opponent and full of petty gripes and grievances. Either way, the bejewelled crowd will lap it up.

Turnout has lagged in Minnesota’s primary compared to previous years, at least so far.

About 88,000 people had returned early ballots as of Tuesday morning, out of 200,000 who had received them, the state’s secretary of state, Steve Simon, told reporters.

Nationally, many states have seen lower turnout this presidential primary season as Trump and Biden have dominated the nominating contests, leaving voters feeling like their vote won’t play much of a role at this point.

“There are at least a couple of factors that explain turnout,” Simon said. “One is candidates that inspire strong feelings, and the other is perceptions of competitiveness. I think it’s safe to say, I don’t think I’m breaking any new ground here, that we have a lot of number one, and not so much of number two.”

But the lower turnout in the presidential primaries doesn’t tell us anything about what could happen in November’s general election. Presidential general elections bring the highest turnout of any US elections.

“Over the last many years, there has been virtually no connection, virtually none, between early in the year primary turnout and general election turnout,” Simon said.

Nationally, many states have seen lower turnout this presidential primary season as Trump and Biden have dominated the nominating contests, leaving voters feeling like their vote won’t play much of a role at this point.

“There are at least a couple of factors that explain turnout,” Simon said. “One is candidates that inspire strong feelings, and the other is perceptions of competitiveness. I think it’s safe to say, I don’t think I’m breaking any new ground here, that we have a lot of number one, and not so much of number two.”

But the lower turnout in the presidential primaries doesn’t tell us anything about what could happen in November’s general election. Presidential general elections bring the highest turnout of any US elections.

“Over the last many years, there has been virtually no connection, virtually none, between early in the year primary turnout and general election turnout,” Simon said.

Hello US politics live blog readers, Super Tuesday is all go at the voting booths and the results will start coming in this evening. We’ll be here to bring you all the news and the context, as it happens.

Here’s where things stand:

• Senator Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, and his wife, Nadine Menendez, have been charged with obstruction of justice in a new, 18-count indictment unsealed on Tuesday related to a years-long bribery scheme linked to Egypt and Qatar.

• Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, ex-Democratic Party and now independent US Senator, has announced she will retire at the end of her term this year. Her exit clears the way for a likely matchup between Republican Kari Lake and Democratic Ruben Gallego in one of the most closely watched 2024 Senate races.

• Nikki Haley, the last rival to Donald Trump for the Republican nomination, once again rejected a third-party presidential bid, as she insisted she would stay in the Republican race “as long as we’re competitive.” She told Fox News on Super Tuesday: “All of these people deserve to vote. Sixteen states want to have their voices heard.”

• Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming has decided not to run for Senate Republican leader to succeed Mitch McConnell, and instead will run for the No. 2 position of whip, according to multiple reports. Barrasso, 71, is relatively popular with the Republican right. He endorsed Donald Trump in January and has the closes relationship with the former president of the “three Johns”.

• Barasso’s decision not to run means the race is now effectively between senators John Thune of South Dakota and John Cornyn of Texas, although Barrasso’s departure could pave the way for another Trump ally to throw their hat in the ring, such as Senator Rick Scott of Florida, who met with Trump on Monday night amid speculation that he could launch a bid for Senate leader.

• Polls are open and voting is under way in some states as millions head to the ballot box on this Super Tuesday, the largest day for voting for both Democrats and Republicans before the November presidential election. Voters involved today are in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont and Virginia. The territory of American Samoa will be caucusing.

The Guardian US Super Tuesday live blogging team’s Léonie Chao-Fong is now handing over for the rest of the day and evening to Chris Stein and Maanvi Singh.

Senator Bob Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, have been charged with obstruction of justice in a new, 18-count indictment unsealed on Tuesday related to a years-long bribery scheme linked to Egypt and Qatar.

Menendez has pleaded not guilty to earlier charges of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from businessmen to impede law enforcement probes they faced, and illegally acting as an agent of the Egyptian government.

In the new indictment, federal prosecutors in Manhattan said Menendez’s former lawyers had told them in meetings last year that Menendez had not been aware of mortgage or car payments that two businessmen had made for his wife, and that he thought the payments were loans, Reuters reported.

In countless campaign appearances during his futile pursuit of the Republican presidential nomination, Florida’s rightwing governor, Ron DeSantis, celebrated his state as “the place woke goes to die”.

Now, by virtue of a federal appeals court ruling that skewers a centerpiece of his anti-diversity and inclusion agenda, Florida resembles a place where anti-woke legislation goes to die.

In a scathing ruling released late on Monday, a three-judge panel of the 11th circuit appeals court in Atlanta blasted DeSantis’s 2022 Stop Woke Act – which banned employers from providing mandatory workplace diversity training, or from teaching that any person is inherently racist or sexist – as “the greatest first amendment sin”.

The judges upheld a lower court’s ruling that the law violated employers’ constitutional rights to freedom of speech and expression. They were also critical of DeSantis for “exceeding the bounds” of the US constitution by imposing political ideology through legislation.

The panel said the state could not be selective by only banning discussion of particular concepts it found “offensive” while allowing others.

Senator Kyrsten Sinema, an Arizona independent, has announced she will retire at the end of her term this year.

“I love Arizona and I am so proud of what we’ve delivered,” she said in a video posted to social media.

Because I choose civility, understanding, listening, working together to get stuff done, I will leave the Senate at the end of this year.

The now independent senator won her seat in 2018 as a Democrat. She was the first non-Republican to win a Senate seat for Arizona since 1994. She’d go on in December 2022 to announce her leave from the Democratic party to become an independent.

Her exit clears the way for a likely matchup between Republican Kari Lake and Democratic Ruben Gallego in one of the most closely watched 2024 Senate races.