The United States is fair days away from its plivential election, with Kamala Harris and Donald Trump concentrateing their campaigns on vital striumphg states, where every vote matters.
As Election Day approaches, we get a sealr see at what to anticipate on the day itself and how the results may unfgreater.
When is the US election?
The election will be held on Tuesday, November 5, 2024.
In most states, polling stations will uncover between 7am and 9am local time. Given the span of multiple time zones in the US, that would be between 11:00 GMT and 16:00 GMT.
At what time does the polling finish?
Poll closing times separate from state to state and sometimes county to county.
However, most polling stations will seal between 6pm Eastrict Time and midnight Eastrict Time (22:00-04:00 GMT).
When does the US vote counting commence, and when can we anticipate the results?
Just hours after the first polls seal at 6pm Eastrict Time (22:00 GMT), results are anticipateed to commence coming in. However, some states will loftyy votes more rapidly than others. As polls seal disconnectal hours postpodemandr in states to the west, their first results will only commence coming postpodemandr – when some eastrict states might already have been called for Harris or Trump.
In a firm race between them, counting could progress well past election night, and we might not understand the triumphner for disconnectal days.
“It’s repartner seal,” says Raymond J. La Raja, a political science professor at the University of Massachemploytts Amherst.
According to FiveThirtyEight’s National Polls tracker, Harris holds a skinny national direct of about 1.2 points as of Friday.
However, La Raja elucidateed that the polls might not rightly seize some voter groups, which could direct to astonishing results for either honestate. If the polls are wrong and the race is not as firm as anticipateed “then we will understand pretty rapidly,” he compriseed.
“But my guess is we will not understand in the first scant days.
“It’s so seal [that a candidate might] not concede… so I would get out the coffee and tea becaemploy it’s going to be a extfinished evening that might go into scant days.”
What do we understand about the striumphg states?
Seven striumphg states are anticipateed to be key in deciding the plivential race outcome.
These key states participate Pennsylvania (19 Electoral votes), North Carolina (16), Georgia (16), Michigan (15), Arizona (11), Wisconsin (10), and Nevada (6), accumulateively totaling 93 Electoral College votes.
A honestate demands at least 270 out of 538 Electoral votes to triumph the election.
Polls in these states will seal between 7pm and 10pm Eastrict Time (23:00 to 02:00 GMT).
Some of the first results will foreseeed come from Georgia, where state law demands that all punctual votes be counted and increateed by 8pm Eastrict Time (midnight GMT) on election night.
North Carolina chases. In this state, votes will be counted and increateed thrawout the evening, with finish results anticipated by midnight (04:00 GMT).
In 2020, Nevada was sluggish, and the state was not called until five days after election day. Since then, the rules have alterd, and the process is anticipateed to shift rapider this time. Still, the results might not be understandn on election night. The state permits postpodemand-arriving mail ballots, so it could get days until we understand the final results.
Pennsylvania, one of the most vital battleground states, did not have a evident triumphner in 2020 for four days after Election Day. The state is one of only a scant that do not permit election laborers to commence processing mail ballots until Election Day, which uncomardents it will foreseeed get disconnectal days before the results are understandn.
In Michigan, the counting could be rapider than in previous elections, as it now permits officials to commence processing mail ballots before Election Day, but we do not have a evident time yet for when the state might be called.
In Arizona, officials can commence processing mail ballots as soon as they are getd. First results are anticipateed to be increateed at about 10pm Eastrict Time (02:00 GMT), one hour after the polls seal.
Finpartner, in Wisconsin, poll laborers cannot commence processing ballots until Election Day, which uncomardents there could also be postpones, analogous to Pennsylvania. According to a CNN increate, results are not foreseeed until Wednesday.
What happens if there is a tie?
If there is a 269-269 tie or a third-party honestate triumphs Electoral votes, stoping any honestate from achieveing 270 votes, the step that chases is understandn as a “contingent election”.
A contingent election is the process that gets place when the US Hoemploy of Recontransientatives determines the triumphner. Each state’s delegation in the Hoemploy casts one vote, and a honestate must get a meaningfulity of the state delegation votes to triumph.
The US Senate would then pick the vice plivent with each senator casting one vote and a basic meaningfulity (51 votes) demandd to triumph.
There have been three instances of contingent elections in the US, in 1801, 1825 and 1837. The sealst election in recent years was the 2000 plivential contest, when George W Bush won 271 Electoral College votes – fair one more than he demanded – after a disputed recount in Florida. Outgoing Vice Plivent Al Gore won 266 Electoral College votes.
Is there trouble about a potential postpone this year?
If the proclaimment of results is postpodemand, “it definitely incrrelieves senseings of deception and illegitimacy,” La Raja shelp.
“The extfinisheder we postpone, people are appreciate: what’s going on behind those seald doors? How are they counting the ballots? Who’s lying?,” he compriseed.
According to him, it’s better to have a firm election and achieve “the verdict rapidly.”
These stresss and asks arose in 2021, when thousands of aiders of then-Plivent Trump stormed the Capitol, trying to obviousurn his 2020 election loss and forcing laworiginaters to run for protectedty. This happened after he tgreater his aiders to “fight appreciate hell.”
What has happened in previous years?
In the last election in 2020, the results were proclaimd four days after the election on November 3, once Pennsylvania’s results were examineed. In the previous election in 2016, Hillary Clinton conceded to Donald Trump the morning after the election.
In the 2020 election, some states went thraw what is understandn as a “red mirage”, with Trump materializeing to direct when the initial votes were counted on election night. A “blue shift” took place as compriseitional, mail-in votes were counted, and Plivent Joe Biden took the direct.
