The United States finished the voting process to elect the next President, with figures now showing a neck-and-neck contest between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump. However, Trump’s wins in two swing states – North Carolina and Georgia – so far has slimmed Harris’ chances of winning the elections.
As counting continues to be underway, projecting a tough battle between the two candidates, all eyes remain stuck at one question — when will the US election results be announced? The Associated Press started calling the states shortly after the first polls closed at 6 pm (4:30 am IST) on Tuesday. The catch here is that the popular vote does not guarantee the ultimate victory as that can only be determined after the Electoral College.
Though the name of the candidate with majority votes is declared late on voting day or early next day, the close fight this season could result in a longer wait for the final word on who won the US elections, BBC reported.
There are also times where a projected winner maybe declared in one state while counting in another is underway.
Slim margins could also mean recounts. According to an AP report, recounts in most of the states are allowed when the margin between top contenders falls within a specific range — such as 0.5 percentage points — even when it means the number of votes separating them is in thousands or tens of thousands. And recounts naturally mean, more time in announcing of the final results.
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The swing states might also cause a possible delay in the reaching the name of the race’s winner. Then again, the official winner will not be announced until electoral votes are also considered.
An electoral college is a process which includes the selection of electors by voters. The electors meet and cast votes for the President and Vice President of the United States of America.
The 538 members of the US Electoral College gather in the capitals of their respective states after the election to decide the winner. Each of the states get assigned a certain number of electors on the basis of the number of seats they hold in the House of Representatives and Senate.
A candidate needs 270 or more electoral college votes to be declared as the winner.
Since the process of picking the next president and vice president is long, naturally the exact time of the actual declaration of the winner largely remains unclear.
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The first polls closed 6 pm EST (4:30 am IST on Wednesday) and the last polls closed at 1 am EST (11:30 am IST on Wednesday), BBC reported.
Here are the closing times of the key battleground states:
Pennsylvania: Polls opened at 7 am EST on Tuesday (5:35 pm IST) and closed at 8 pm EST (6:30 am IST on Wednesday).
Georgia: Polls opened at 7 am EST on Tuesday (5:35 pm IST) and closed at 8 pm EST (6:30 am IST on Wednesday).
Arizona: Polls opened at 8 am EST on Tuesday (6:30 pm IST) and closed at 9 pm EST (7:30 am IST on Wednesday).
Wisconsin: Polls opened at 8 am EST (6:30 pm IST) and closed at 9 pm EST (7:30 am IST on Wednesday).
Michigan: Polls opened at 7 am EST on Tuesday (5:35 pm IST) and closed at 8 pm EST (6:30 am IST on Wednesday).
Nevada: Polls opened at 9 am EST on Tuesday (7:30 pm IST) and closed at 7 pm EST (5:30 am IST on Wednesday).
North Carolina: Polls opened at 6:30 am EST on Tuesday (5:00 pm IST) and closed at 7:30 pm EST (6:00 am IST on Wednesday).
In the last presidential elections, the election day was on November 3, 2020, and Joe Biden was not declared winner until late November 7. The US TV networks announced the results after the numbers in Pennsylvania became more clearer, a BBC report said.
However, there have been times where the winner has been declared in a fairly short period of time. Trump was declared winner by the Associated Press on election night in 2016.
In 2012, Barack Obama’s victory in the race for a second term was reportedly announced before midnight on the election day itself.
