When will we know who won?

American voters will go to the polls on November 5 to choose their next president.

US election results are sometimes announced within hours of polls closing, but tight competition this year could mean a long wait.

In some presidential races, the winner is announced late on election night, or the next morning. In this case, the knife-edge race in many states may mean that the media has to wait a long time before announcing the winner.

Democrat Kamala Harris, the current vice president, and Donald Trump, the former Republican president, have been running neck and neck for weeks.

A small victory can tell a story. In the key state of Pennsylvania, for example, a recount would be required if there was a fractional point difference between the votes cast for the winner and the loser. In 2020, the limit was just over 1.1 percent.

Legal challenges are also possible. More than 100 pre-election lawsuits have already been filed, including challenges to voter eligibility and the administration of voter lists, by Republicans.

Other conditions that may cause delays include any election-related disruptions, particularly at polling stations.

On the other hand, vote counting has increased in some areas, including the key state of Michigan, and far fewer ballots will be cast by mail than in the last election, which was during the Covid crisis.

The 2020 election takes place on Tuesday 3 November. However, the TV networks in the US did not announce Joe Biden the winner until the morning of Saturday 7 November, after the result of Pennsylvania became more clear.

In one recent election, voters had a very short wait.

In 2016, when Trump won the presidency, he was declared the winner shortly before 03:00 EST (08:00 GMT) the day after the election.

In 2012, when Barack Obama won a second term, his victory was scheduled before midnight on the actual polling day.

However, the 2000 election between George W Bush and Al Gore was different.

The vote was held on November 7, but the two campaigns battled because of tight competition in Florida and the race was not decided until December 12. The US Supreme Court voted to end the recount process, which kept Bush in place as the winner and gave him the White House.

Nationwide, the first poll will close at 18:00 EST (23:00 GMT) on Tuesday evening and the last poll will close at 01:00 EST (06:00 GMT) on Wednesday morning.

But this race is expected to come down to its results seven skating regions. These are Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Polls close at different times in different regions. Certain state laws may inflate the count in some states, while other states may report partial counts after the final in-person vote is cast. Also, some absentee and mail-in ballots, including ballots for members of the military and Americans living overseas, are often among the last to be counted.

Georgia – Polls closed in the Peach State on 19:00 EST (00:00 GMT). Early and mail-in votes will be counted first, before in-person votes. Georgia’s top election official estimates that about 75% of votes will be counted within the first two hours, with full counts expected later in the night.

North Carolina – Voting closes thirty minutes after Georgia. North Carolina’s results are expected to be announced before midnight, however, problems may arise in areas that were hit by hurricanes in September.

Pennsylvania – Voting ends at 20:00 EST (01:00 GMT) in the Keystone State – the jewel of every state in this election cycle. Like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania does not allow counting to begin until election morning, leading to expected delays in results. Experts agree that it could take at least 24 hours before enough votes are counted for a winner to emerge.

In Michigan – Voting ends at 21:00 EST (02:00 GMT) in the Wolverine State. Michigan allows officials to begin counting votes one week before election day, but they are not allowed to release the results until the polls close. Michigan’s top election official said results should not be expected until “the end of the day” Wednesday.

Wisconsin – Results should be in shortly after polls close at 21:00 EST in smaller counties. However, it often takes a long time for major centers of the population to draw votes, leading experts to predict that the state will not have a result until at least Wednesday.

Arizona – The first results can come quickly 22:00 EST (03:00 GMT), however, they will not paint the complete picture. The state’s largest county says it doesn’t expect results until Wednesday morning. In addition, ballots dropped on election day can take up to 13 days to be counted, according to officials in Maricopa County, the state’s largest county.

Nevada – Ballots here can take days to be counted, because the state allows mail-in ballots to be valid as long as they are sent on election day and arrive no later than November 9.

Generally, the votes cast on election day are counted first, followed by early and mail-in ballots, those that have been challenged, and then overseas and military votes.

Local election officials – sometimes appointed, sometimes elected – verify, process and count individual votes, in a process known as canvassing.

Verifying votes includes comparing the number cast with the number of active voters; removing, uncovering and inspecting every single ballot for tears, stains or other damage; and documenting and investigating any conflicts.

Counting votes involves feeding each one to electronic scanners that draw their results. Some cases require manual calculations or double-checked calculations.

Every state and locality has strict rules about who can participate in canvassing, how votes are counted and which parts are open to the public, including how group observers can monitor and interfere with the counting of votes.

Once all valid votes have been included in the final results, a process known as the electoral college begins.

In each state a different number of electoral college votes can be won, and it is this guarantee – not just the support of the voters themselves – that will ultimately win the presidency.

Generally, states award all of their electoral college votes to whoever wins the popular vote and this is confirmed after the December 17 caucuses.

The new US Congress then convenes on January 6 to count the electoral college votes and confirm the new president.

After the 2020 election, Trump refused to concede and rallied his supporters to march on the US Capitol as Congress convened to confirm Biden’s victory.

He urged his Vice President, Mike Pence, to reject the results – but Pence refused.

Even after the impasse was cleared and members of Congress were reconvened, 147 Republicans voted without success to reverse Trump’s loss.

Electoral changes since then have made it difficult for lawmakers to contest the guaranteed results sent to them from individual states. They also clarified that the vice president does not have the power to reject the election votes unilaterally.

However, election watchers expect efforts to delay the 2024 vote’s ratification to take place at the local and state levels.

Trump, his running mate JD Vance and top Republican leaders on Capitol Hill have repeatedly refused to say outright that they will accept the results if he loses.

The president-elect will begin his term of office after his inauguration on Monday, 20 January 2025, at the US Capitol complex.

He will be the 60th president in US history.

At this event, the new president will be sworn in with a promise to uphold the Constitution and deliver his first speech.