When will we know who won the US election?

When will we know who won the US election?
When will we know who won the US election?

This article was originally published in English

A winner could be decided as early as Wednesday, but final voting in key states could take longer.

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We're still waiting for results from a few key US states that will determine whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump wins the White House.

While voting has closed across the United States, the process of determining the winner may take some time, as Americans do not vote directly for president. Indeed, Americans do not vote directly for the president, but for the electors of the electoral college, who are designated based on the population of the states.

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In 48 of the 50 states, all of a state's electoral college votes go to the candidate who won in that state, even if only by a small margin.

There are 538 electoral votes, and the first candidate to get 270 of them will be the next president of the United States.

The remaining key states are Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Arizona, but Ms Harris' path to victory is narrowing as Mr Trump has substantial leads in most of those states.

States all have different procedures for counting ballots, which can cause delays. For example, some states don't allow officials to begin counting early or mailed ballots until Election Day.

Four key states – Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – have mail-in voting procedures in place, meaning it could take several days for votes to be finalized. The official, certified vote will take weeks.

But if the results are conclusive, a winner could be chosen sooner.

In 2020, President Joe Biden was declared the winner four days after the election.

Additional sources • adaptation: Serge Duchêne

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