The worrying forecast comes as the polarising election enters its final hours, with fears that no matter who wins, a civil war could be imminent.

Dean of ACU Ballarat, Professor Bridget Aitchison is well placed to understand the ramifications that the US election could have on the world, having been born in California and lived in a number of US states.

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"I'm a dual citizen and I did vote in the last election and I did vote this one," Professor Aitchison said. "In the last one there seemed to be no good choices. Last time it took me three days to choose, then I had to take a shower afterwards. This time, I don't like Joe Biden, but he's not Donald Trump."

Professor Aitchison said the American democracy had already surpassed its life expectancy of around 200 years, and she fears that regardless of who wins, a civil war could erupt.

"It's polarised the nation," she said. "I said months ago that we were seeing the beginnings of a civil war unfolding, how this goes will determine a lot of things for the world.

"History tells us that isolationism only leads to war. Republics generally have about a 200 year lifespan, America is past that date. When you get entitlement, consumerism, that's when we head in different directions.

"I hope the American experiment continues, but right now it is in a declining stage of its life cycle. If there's no course correction, who knows what will happen?

Professor Aitchison, a former Protestant Christian minister, is well versed in the different world views of Americans.

"You'll see a fracture on ideology, rather than geography. For me, the moment Trump fired on peaceful protests so he could hold a Bible upside down outside a church, that was the defining moment," she said.

"Unless cooler heads prevail, we will see this as a start of a shift, but we won't be able to see the full ramifications until we see them in hindsight.

"What happens if the balance of world power shifts to China and Russia?"

She said she was particularly concerned with evangelical Americans, who she says see Donald Trump as a God.

"I believe in faith over religion," she said. "I'm seeing behaviour and words that Jesus would be ashamed of.

"There is a marriage of the evangelical church with right-wing philosophy and it all hangs on abortion.

"They've traded God for Trump and religion for nationalism, they've been sold a pack of lies. I can have a personal view on abortion, but it's not a political one."

She said even in her own family there were political divisions, admitting one family member had not spoken to her since the last election in 2016.

"Friends and relatives are very divided, I know some well-educated people supporting Trump. I have family and friends who think Trump is a danger," she said.

"The media is so polarised and that confirmation bias has become a runaway train. There is no critical thinking, no alternative arguments that can be discussed, and it's not educated in schools.

"I think the ideological fractures will exist no matter what happens. We need calm, considered thinkers to bring the country back again.

"There are four categories of American, the Democrat who will vote for no matter who their candidate is, those married to Trump will follow him to the death, those, and I consider myself this, even though I ran as a Labor candidate in the council election, that are a moderate, centrist, understand the fiscal responsibility of the right with the social responsibility of the left and there are people who simply don't care.

"That was the big problem in 2016 when the voter turn out was so low. The number of early ballots have already surpassed the whole of 2016, so that's something, there is an engagement there."

The electoral college refers to a group of 538 people who are formal electors.

Each elector represents one vote in the electoral college.

That means a majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the president.

All 50 states and the District of Columbia are allowed electoral votes based on their population.

Even if a presidential candidate wins the national popular vote, that doesn't mean the same result will be reflected by the electoral college.

That's what happened in the last presidential election back in 2016 - when Donald Trump lost the national popular vote to Hillary Clinton but secured 304 electoral votes to her 227. It also happened in 2000 when George W. Bush became president.