When will we know who won?

American voters go to the polls on Tuesday to decide on their subsequent president.

US election outcomes are typically declared inside hours of the polls closing, however this 12 months’s tight contest may imply an extended wait.

The primary polls shut at 18:00 EST (23:00 GMT) on Tuesday night and the final at 01:00 EST (06:00 GMT) early on Wednesday.

In some presidential races the victor has been named late on election night time, or early the following morning.

This time, the knife-edge race in lots of states may imply media retailers wait longer earlier than projecting who has gained.

Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, the previous president, have been operating neck-and-neck for weeks.

Slim victories may additionally imply recounts.

In the important thing swing state of Pennsylvania, for instance, a recount could be required if there’s a half-percentage-point distinction between the votes forged for the winner and loser. In 2020, the margin was simply over 1.1 share factors.

Authorized challenges are additionally doable. Greater than 100 pre-election lawsuits have already been filed by Republicans, together with challenges to voter eligibility and voter roll administration.

Different situations that might trigger delays embody any election-related dysfunction, significantly at polling places.

Alternatively, vote-counting has sped up in some areas, together with the essential state of Michigan, and much fewer votes might be forged by mail than within the final election, which was in the course of the Covid pandemic.

Within the 2020 election, US TV networks didn’t declare Joe Biden the winner till 4 days after election day, when the end in Pennsylvania turned clearer.

In different current elections, voters have had a a lot shorter wait.

In 2016, Trump was declared the winner shortly earlier than 03:00 EST (08:00 GMT) just a few hours after polls closed.

In 2012, when Barack Obama secured a second time period, his victory was projected earlier than midnight the identical night of election day.

Nevertheless, the 2000 election between George W Bush and Al Gore was a notable exception. The race was not determined for 5 weeks, when the US Supreme Court docket voted to finish Florida’s recount. That stored Bush in place as winner and handed him the White Home.

The race is anticipated to return all the way down to outcomes from seven swing states, which consultants consider Harris and Trump each have a practical likelihood of profitable.

Turnout has been excessive in early voting, each in-person and by mail, with information damaged in Georgia.

Georgia – Polls shut within the Peach State at 19:00 EST (00:00 GMT). Georgia’s high election official estimates that about 75% of votes might be counted inside the first two hours.

North Carolina – Polls shut half-hour after Georgia. North Carolina’s outcomes are anticipated to be introduced earlier than the tip of the night time.

Pennsylvania – Voting ends at 20:00 EST (01:00 GMT) however consultants agree it might take no less than 24 hours earlier than sufficient votes are counted for a winner to emerge.

Michigan – Voting concludes at 21:00 EST (02:00 GMT). A outcome will not be anticipated till the tip of Wednesday.

Wisconsin – Outcomes ought to are available in shortly after polls shut at 21:00 EST for smaller counties however consultants predict the state will not have a outcome till no less than Wednesday.

Arizona – Preliminary outcomes may come as early as 22:00 EST (03:00 GMT) however the state’s largest county says to not anticipate outcomes till early Wednesday morning. Postal ballots dropped off on election day may take as much as 13 days to depend.

Nevada – Votes right here may additionally take days to depend. The state permits mail-in ballots so long as they have been despatched on election day and arrive no later than 9 November.

Sometimes, the votes forged on election day are tallied first, adopted by early and mail ballots, these which have been challenged, after which abroad and army ballots.

Native election officers – typically appointed, typically elected – confirm, course of and depend particular person votes, in a course of referred to as canvassing.

Verifying ballots contains evaluating the quantity forged with the variety of lively voters; eradicating, unfolding and inspecting each single poll for tears, stains or different injury; and documenting and investigating any inconsistencies.

Counting ballots entails feeding every one into digital scanners that tabulate their outcomes. Some circumstances require guide counts or double-checked tallies.

Each state and locality has rigorous guidelines about who can take part within the canvass, the order wherein votes are processed and which elements are open to the general public, together with how partisan observers can monitor and intervene in vote-counting.

As soon as each legitimate vote has been included within the closing outcomes, a course of referred to as the electoral faculty comes into play.

In every state a various variety of electoral faculty votes will be gained, and it’s securing these – and never simply the backing of voters themselves – that finally wins the presidency.

Usually, states award all of their electoral faculty votes to whoever wins the favored vote and that is confirmed after conferences on 17 December.

The brand new US Congress then meets on 6 January to depend the electoral faculty votes and make sure the brand new president.

After the 2020 election, Trump refused to concede and rallied supporters to march on the US Capitol as Congress was assembly to certify Biden’s victory.

He urged his Vice-President, Mike Pence, to reject the outcomes – however Pence refused.

Even after the riot was cleared and members of Congress regrouped, 147 Republicans voted unsuccessfully to overturn Trump’s loss.

Electoral reforms since then have made it tougher for lawmakers to object to licensed outcomes despatched to them from particular person states. They’ve additionally clarified that the vice-president has no energy to unilaterally reject electoral votes.

However, election watchers anticipate that efforts to delay certification of the 2024 vote may happen on the native and state stage.

Trump, his operating mate JD Vance and high Republican leaders on Capitol Hill have refused on a number of events to state unequivocally that they may settle for the outcomes if he loses.

It’s doable that the 2 candidates may find yourself in a tie as a result of they’ve the identical variety of electoral faculty votes – 269 every.

In that scenario, members of the Home of Representatives – the decrease chamber of the US Congress – would vote to decide on the president in a course of referred to as a contingent election.

In the meantime the Senate – the higher chamber – would vote for the vice-president.

However that hasn’t occurred for about 200 years.

The president-elect will start their time period in workplace after being inaugurated on Monday, 20 January 2025, within the grounds of the US Capitol advanced.

It is going to be the sixtieth presidential inauguration in US historical past.

The occasion will see the brand new president sworn in on a pledge to uphold the Structure after which ship their inaugural tackle.