The announcement of the results of the American presidential election has no specific time. It can take hours or days, due to several factors.
Kamala Harris or Donald Trump? Response in a few hours… Or not. Unlike France, where voters know the results of the presidential election from 8 p.m. on election day, Americans do not have a precise time for the announcement of the results.
As polls opened at 6 a.m. local time on the east coast of the United States and millions of people will add their votes to the more than 82 million ballots already cast early or sent by post, they will have to wait several hours, even several days, to know the results.
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Several explanatory factors
This particularity is linked to different factors. Geographic first: the country is made up of several time zones, six in total, and the results corresponding to the different States will arrive dispersed over time.
The American electoral system also explains why the results come in trickles. Americans vote in their states, which establish their own rules for this election, particularly regarding postal voting. In states where mail-in voting is widespread, counting takes longer. These ballots must be verified before being counted, and some states start this process later than others.
[Allô Washington] – D-1, the last meetings of the candidates
The high rate of mail voting in Pennsylvania, a key state for the election where ballots cannot be processed before Election Day, could therefore delay the announcement of results nationally. Key States, also called swing statesare decisive for the election because they do not clearly lean towards one party or another.
Harris' team anticipates “several days” of waiting
Furthermore, these results will be given by the American media, because the official authorities carry out numerous checks, which can take weeks, before giving a winner. As explained by the AP press agency and the channel NBCthe media use several sources for this: investigators present across the country, teams of statisticians and analysts, data from the States…
The scenario of results announced “several days” after Tuesday is the one favored by Kamala Harris' campaign team. Harris-Walz campaign chairwoman Jen O'Malley Dillon stressed Monday during a conference call that “new ballots will continue to be counted several days after the election. This is obviously not a sign of fraud, that’s just the way it works.”
“We think this race is going to be incredibly close, which means we may not know the results of this election for several days,” the official warned.
For each of the seven “swing states” (Georgia, North Carolina, Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) Jen O'Malley Dillon estimated that the final results will extend from “late night”, between Tuesday and Wednesday, until November 8 or 9 for Nevada and Pennsylvania, the most crucial northeastern state in the presidential election. In 2020, Joe Biden's presidential election victory was announced after four days of intense suspense.
Even after this announcement, the official results will not be announced for several months. The big voters will meet in mid-December in their State. On January 6, 2025, following the official count of their votes, Congress will solemnly announce the name of the president.
