There are few places outside Britain where the outcome of the British referendum on EU membership is being more closely watched than across the Atlantic in the United States.
President Obama has claimed Britain will be "at the back of the queue" to negotiate a trade deal with the US if the Leave campaign wins, and a White House spokesman says the President will be paying close attention to the results as they come in.
Our US Correspondent Simon Marks reports.
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Even before it became apparent that there would indeed be an EU referendum in Britain, the United States wavered between its traditional approach of not intervening in an ally's domestic affairs….and the Obama administration's growing concern about the impact of a British departure from the EU.
It was back in January 2013 - more than 3 years ago now - that the White House first gingerly put its toe in British political waters.
An Assistant Secretary of State was dispatched to London, and caused tremendous irritation in Downing Street by saying the mere holding of a referendum was an un-necessary risk.
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So when David Cameron announced that the vote would indeed take place, the White House had a tough decision to make: stay out of it or get involved?
President Obama took the latter course.
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"I'm not coming here to fix any votes, I'm not casting a vote myself. I'm offering my opinion".
TRX: That is a very rare thing for an American leader to do during an election or referendum period in Britain or anywhere else for that matter.
And the President, visiting London, justified it by saying he wanted to correct the claim of the "Leave" campaign that the US and Britain could just negotiate their own trade agreement separate from the one on the table with the rest of Europe.
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"Maybe some point down the line there might be a UK / US trade agreement, but it's not going happen any time soon because our focus is negotiating with a big block, the European Union, to get a trade agreement done. And the UK is going to be in the back of the queue".
TRX: But will Britain really be in the back of the queue?
Trade policy analyst Dan Ikenson at Washington's Cato Institute says not necessarily.
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"I think that it's quite feasible that the United States and the UK would strike a trade agreement before the EU. /// \\\ The UK would be an easier country with whom the United States could strike a deal."
TRX: But other Obama administration voices have raised other concerns about a Brexit.
Janet Yellen is the Chairman of the Federal Reserve….the equivalent of the Governor of the Bank of England.
She's been carefully, but obliquely warning of the impact on the financial markets if the results tonight go the Leave campaign's way.
AXX "It is a decision that could have consequences for economic and financial conditions in global financial markets".
TRX: That's about as close as she's come to saying it's a bad idea.
On the financial markets, traders have been more outspoken….as the comedian John Oliver - perhaps America's most famous Brit - demonstrated to his audience on the HBO program "Last Week Tonight".
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TRX: Whatever the outcome of the referendum….all eyes will be on Wall Street in a few hours for reaction.
And also on the candidates vying to succeed Barack Obama.
Hillary Clinton has been backing the Remain campaign…..but Donald Trump has on some occasions indicated he thinks Britain would be better off outside the EU….and on other occasions said he doesn't want to interfere.
One of them will end up in charge of the US end of Britain's historic transatlantic relationship.
The only unresolved question: whether that's a Britain that's in or out.
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