Rest assured, you are not the first (or the last) of our readers to ask us this question today.
Impossible to give you a time, or even a day, for the publication of the final results of the election. In 2020, due to the explosion of postal voting, the counting and communication of results was delayed in some swing states. It was only on November 7, three and a half days after the election, that the main American television channels finally announced Joe Biden’s victory.
On the night of Tuesday November 5, therefore in the early hours of Wednesday for France, we will only have partial results. They will concern the states for which there is no suspense, because they always vote Democratic, like the State of New York, or Republican, like Missouri.
On election day, polling stations close between 6 and 8 p.m., across three time zones. Which means that the last polling stations, those in Hawaii and Alaska, will close at 6 a.m. Wednesday, November 6, French time. The counting begins in each office, as soon as the polls close. But we also have to wait for the ballots arriving by mail to be counted.
In a “normal” election, we know the result around 11 p.m. (East Coast time, or 5 a.m. in Paris), when, with the exception of a few polling stations in Hawaii and Alaska, all polling stations are closed and a large part of the ballots already counted.
But this year, as in 2020, we will have to be patient. With the risks of contesting the results – everyone expects Donald Trump to announce his victory hastily, on Tuesday evening, without any credible element to support this bravado – the proclamation of the results could be delayed.
Especially since the first indications could prove misleading: one of the candidates could have a clear lead with the counting of the first ballots, but his rival could catch up over the hours, or even days, with the counting of ballots sent by post.
The major American television channels are also preparing for a long election evening which could last several days, with the fear of announcing a winner too early and in the middle of a possible torrent of disinformation. In 2020, the result was known on November 7, three and a half days after the election, with the main American television channels finally announcing Joe Biden’s victory.
Traditionally, the Associated Press (AP) news agency plays a crucial role in counting votes and declaring the winner in American elections. This is the source we refer to at Monde for monitoring results.
