There are only hours left for the United States presidential elections on November 5th, when Americans will also choose the governors of 13 states, several seats in Congress, and local positions. The Republican Donald Trump and the Democrat Kamala Harris are the candidates leading the polls to win the Presidency, but when will we know who won?
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The election results can be announced after the polling stations close. Each of the 50 states can make their announcements individually, and then a general announcement of results will be made.
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The time it takes for the release of results after the vote count is indefinite. It can happen on the same day or even several days later, it all depends on how close the votes are between the main candidates, who this year for the Presidency are Trump and Harris.
The closer the fight at the ballot box, the longer it will take to inform who was elected.
The timing of when the announcement will be made depends on the numbers they have in each state in order to reach 270 votes in the Electoral College. The candidate who has this amount of votes, or more, is the winner.
Experts estimate that in the presidential elections of 2024, the results may be delayed several days after the polls, as polls show a tie between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. This has made it difficult to give an estimation of who will win.
There are specialists who point out that this election will be the closest in the history of the United States.
The fact that an election is closely contested can affect the vote count, for example, something that will undoubtedly impact the time it takes to make the announcement.
Through exit polls and early counts, it is the major media outlets in the United States that announce the winners of each state, but if a race is very close, on television channels you will hear the phrase "too close to call", meaning too close to determine.
It is estimated that the close race and counting in states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona will take more than a day to know the future president of the United States.
Election results from the United States that have taken the longest to announce
There are elections when the result is announced on the same day, such was the case of Barack Obama when he was elected for his first term in 2008. His victory was known before midnight.
When Donald Trump won the Presidency in 2016, he was declared the winner before 03:00 EST (08:00 GMT) the day after the elections, as remembered by the BBC. However, others have taken several days, as was the case when Joe Biden won in the last elections. The elections were held on November 3, but he was declared the winner on the morning of November 7 when the media were confident enough to declare the Democrat as the winner in Pennsylvania.
The longest-delayed announcement in history was when George Bush was declared elected over Al Gore in 2000. The votes were cast on November 7th, but they had to be recounted in Florida, and it wasn't until December 12th when the United States Supreme Court confirmed Bush's victory.
Trump demands announcement before midnight and experts justify the delay
Donald Trump demanded that the results be announced no later than 11:00 p.m. on the same Tuesday, November 5. "They have to be defined by 9, 10, 11 at night on Tuesday... They are a bunch of corrupt people. These are corrupt individuals," said the former president, as reported by Associated Press (AP). It is not known who or whom he was referring to as "corrupt individuals".
The news agency mentioned presented the statement by Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles campus, who expressed that "there is nothing sinister about it... The delay is to protect the integrity of the process".
David Becker, an expert in elections and co-author of 'The Big Truth', stated that it is unrealistic for officials from thousands of jurisdictions to "simply snap their fingers and count 160 million multi-page ballots with dozens of contests".
"At 11 pm, Eastern Time, the polls will just be closing in the two politically undecided states located in the west of the country: Arizona and Nevada," says AP.
Polls show very close percentages between Trump and Harris
FiveThirtyEight's poll aggregator shows that Kamala has a 48% lead over Donald Trump's 46.9%, meaning the Democratic candidate only has a 1.1 point lead over the Republican.
The studies from The New York Times/Siena College show that Harris and Trump are tied, and that the decisive votes are in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Georgia.
Patriot Poling has 49.4% for Kamala Harris and 48.1% for Donald Trump.