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The United States will elect its new president on Tuesday. But when will the winner be determined? The time difference and a different voting system make it difficult to make a forecast.
Ideally, the new president will be determined on Wednesday: President Donald Trump would prepare for his second term or his challenger Joe Biden to take office in January. If a candidate wins by a large majority, it could happen. If it gets tight, the election results could take a long time to come. But how long exactly? An overview:
When do you vote?
The United States spans multiple time zones. The first polling stations in the northeastern state of Vermont will open Tuesday at 5 am (11 am CET). Starting at 6 am, many states on the east coast will follow, followed by the center of the country. In the west coast state of California, polling places open at 7 am (4 pm CET).
Hawaii and Alaska are at the bottom of the long list of states. Islanders can cast their votes until 6 am CET on Wednesday morning. In much of Alaska, polling stations are also open until 6 am CET, and in the Aleutians one more hour, until 7 am CET. With the closure of polling stations in the northernmost state, the US elections ended.
Postal voters could vote weeks before the election. Most states also offer the option of voting early at polling stations. In 2016, about 40 percent of votes were cast in these two ways before Election Day. This year seems to be even more: a few days before the elections, according to the researchers, about 80 million Americans had already voted.
When can the results of the elections be expected?
In past presidential elections, the winner was generally determined on election night. However, experts assume that this year, due to the pandemic, many more people will vote by mail. Therefore, the vote count could be significantly delayed, a few days or even more.
The electoral law of the United States is determined primarily by the states. In some places, ballots mailed on Election Day can even be counted, and counting these votes is more complex, for example, due to the need to compare voters’ signatures. A few thousand votes could decide the outcome of elections in a country. Officials in several states, including the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, warned that the count could last until Friday, November 6.
Additionally, polls show that more Democrats than Republicans want to use the mail vote. Thus, the first results of the polling station count could see Trump lead the way in some places, but the count of the vote-by-mail papers would ultimately help Biden win. In individual states, there could also be lawsuits and recount demands, further delaying the bottom line.
In 2000, for example, the result in the state of Florida, which finally also decided the presidential election, was only known a month after the election. The legal battle went to the Supreme Court of Washington.
Who will announce the results of the elections?
There is no electoral authority in the US that quickly announces the results for the entire country. The results will be announced gradually at the local level, that is, in the polling stations, districts and states. Therefore, major American media outlets play an important role in collecting local results and, in some cases, combining them with other data to predict who won an election. The results obtained by the Associated Press (AP) news agency are considered very reliable.
Where can you follow the elections?
Election night will air live and on TV for free on “ARD.” “ZDF” also broadcasts it live, as well as “RTL” and “TVNow.” The impressions of the election night can be followed on n-tv. The stations “phoenix” and “WELT” also report live on the electoral events.
What happens after the elections?
On December 14, the 538 women voters and voters (You can read about the crazy electoral system in the United States here.) in your states, which is ideally just a formality and reflects the outcome of the states. On January 6, the US Congress will officially announce who will be the next president and vice president in a joint session of the two houses of parliament at 7 pm CET. The new president will then be sworn in (“swearing in”) on January 20 in a festive ceremony in front of the Capitol in Washington starting at 6 pm CET.
