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Millions of Americans continue to vote in the presidential election, and everyone is waiting for the results to be announced, and the question arises of when exactly will we know if Republican Donald Trump or his Democratic rival Joe Biden is the next president of the United States.
In this report, we provide the most important information about the procedures followed to announce the winner in the US presidential elections:
Polls in the United States begin closing at 18:00 ET (23:00 GMT) and polling stations vary by state, but it is important to know that results in each state will not begin to appear until that all polling stations are closed.
The other thing to know is that no preliminary results or turnout projections will be released until all polling stations in 9 states are closed, and that is at 19:00 ET (00:00 GMT).
When can we find the winner?
The first time that we can meet the next president will be at 23:00 EST (04:00 GMT), since it is likely that during this time the results of the state of California, which has the most 55 electoral votes, have appeared. Based on the results of the results, one of the two candidates would cross the threshold of 270 required to win.
However, 23:00 EST is too early to know the winner, at least in recent history. Of the last five presidential elections, the result did not appear at this time until 2008, when it was announced that former President Barack Obama had won the California vote, which allowed him to exceed 270 votes, but in the 2012 and 2016 elections it was announced the winner hours later.
In 2000, when the contest was between Democratic candidate Al Gore and President George W. Bush, the results were delayed until December 12 due to a recount in the crucial state of Florida.
It is worth noting that the process for declaring a winner in each state is not necessarily based on accurate vote statistics, but rather on forecasts made by analysts analyzing polls and how vote counting processes are shaped by districts or counties. main.
If the state is one of the determining states for a candidate, which is the case for about 30 states in these elections, then these states can be expected as soon as the polls close, or shortly thereafter.
If the state is an undecided state, the prediction of the winner will be delayed as analysts view the results of the vote count, and the closer the results are, the longer it takes to announce the winner.
Who makes the predictions?
Of course, the American media has a long history of trying to speed up the process of informing Americans about the results of the presidential elections, but this is not always easy.
An example of unsuccessful predictions is that, in addition to the 2000 elections, there were some “notorious” incorrect predictions. In 1916, the New York Times prematurely and wrongly declared Charles Evans Hughes the winner. About Woodrow Wilson.
In 1948, election analysts at the Chicago Daily Tribune incorrectly concluded that Thomas Dewey had defeated Harry Truman.
The system used today for election forecasts has its roots in the early 1960s, when cable services and television networks in the United States combined their resources to locate thousands of people across the country to count. electoral votes in districts.
In 1990, the Associated Press and US broadcasters created a new system that combined opinion polls and voting results, a method that is still widely used today.
Currently the Associated Press and Fox News participate in a series of polls as they emerge from voters and have their own separate expectations.
The remaining members of the system, which were formed in 1990 from ABC, CBS, CNN, and NBC use this data to create their own expectations.
Are these results official?
No, of course, the counting of votes will take several days and in some cases a few weeks, and states have different methods and procedures for counting personal and postal ballots, and once the count is complete, each state will certify their results.
If all goes according to plan, the approved results for each state will be formally presented when the state meets to certify its constituents, prior to the Electoral College meeting on December 14.
The number of votes was not approved at all on election night and the matter is no different this year. Rather, what complicates matters this time is that around 100 million voters approved the election by mail in most states, requiring more time for the counting processes.
And three states, all of them from the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, cannot begin counting mail-in votes until Nov. 3, which could extend the announcement period for results.
And if neither candidate can win the Electoral College vote in some states, this can lead to a long delay in knowing the winner.
This scenario worries many about possible lengthy legal battles, prolonging the announcement of the final result.
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