Florida swings to Clinton as Election Day voting kicks off

Florida has dramatically swung towards support for Hillary Clinton in final polling taken on the eve of Election Day.

Most recent polls show Clinton with a nearly 10 point lead to secure the swing state's crucial Electoral College votes. Clinton pushed to 54.9% ahead of 45.1% for Republican Donald Trump in a sharp reversal in Florida from the day before the election (7 November). Trump was shown to have a 1% lead on Clinton.

Popular vote polling in Florida also shows Clinton ahead by one to four point margins in three out of four polls. Another shows Trump with a four point lead.

Securing the state's Electoral College votes is crucial to winning the presidency. Voters in the US do not directly elect the president but instead vote for an 'elector' in the Electoral College who has announced in advance how they plan to vote. Gaining at least 270 of the 538 total electoral votes secures the presidency.

Florida was a crucial swing state in the 2000 election that tipped the vote for George W. Bush over Al Gore.

With 29 Electoral College votes, Florida has the most votes of the swing states up for grabs throughout the election. The definition of a swing state is one that shows, "a mixture of polls, where one or another candidate is ahead by a few points" throughout the campaign, according to Jim Henson, head of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin.

Other major swing states with the highest number of Electoral College votes include Pennsylvania (20), Ohio (18), Michigan (16) and North Carolina (15).

In Pennsylvania Clinton has a 76.% chance of securing the Electoral College over Trump's 23.3% chance. Most recent polling of the popular vote, however, shows the Republican ahead in the state by 1%. This is an erosion from Clinton's five-point lead in Pennsylvania, just days ago in a CNN poll.

But Clinton appears to hold the lead in several battleground states when it comes to Electoral College votes. In North Carolina Clinton's chances of securing these votes rose 9.4% since 2 November when an FBI review of her email practices as Secretary of State loomed over the election. On Sunday (6 November) she was cleared by FBI Director James Comey.

Minor swing states that hold smaller number of Electoral College votes include Virginia, Wisconsin, Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, and New Hampshire.

Recent polling shows the two candidates tied for the popular vote in Colorado. Clinton is ahead in Pennsylvania as well as Virginia. But Trump is ahead by 5% of the popular vote in Ohio. Two polls in Michigan show either one or the other candidate ahead.

The most recent national IBD/TIPP Tracking poll released Election Day (8 November) shows Trump ahead by two points. But nine out of 10 polls released Monday show Clinton ahead by two to six point margins in national popular vote polling.

The last president who lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College was George W Bush. In 2000 Al Gore beat him in the popular vote by 500,000 ballots. Bush won, however, when he received 271 Electoral College votes to Gore's 266.

Right now projections show Clinton will hold 302 Electoral College votes and Trump 235.