When will we know the results of the 2024 presidential election? Experts say the results likely won’t be known on election day.

“This is going to be election week, not election day,” said Democratic strategist Peter Giangreco.

While it’s not unusual for results to take time in a presidential race, 2024 will see some changes that could delay voter responses.

Changes to North Carolina’s voter ID laws and early voting process could slow vote counting.

Meanwhile, laws in key variable states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania mean clerks can’t process mail-in ballots before Election Day. In 2020, those states were decided by about 20,000 and 80,000 votes, respectively.

“In other states, I can open them, check them. They can flatten them so all they have to do is run them through the scanners. In Pennsylvania, I can’t even touch them,” Giangreco said. “So we’re probably looking at Friday or Saturday before we get to Pennsylvania.”

However, delays are not unheard of in a presidential race, according to Dr. Kevin Boyle, chair of the history department for Northwestern University.

“There are a lot of stories about presidential candidates who just go to bed not knowing if they won the presidency or not,” Boyle said.

In 2020, it took four days for President Joe Biden to be officially named the winner. In 2000, the results were based on just 537 votes in Florida, with the networks calling the state for Al Gore, then George Bush before leading the “too close to call” race.

There are many elections throughout the 19th and 20th centuries that were not called on election night.

“Even as late as 1960, John Kennedy wasn’t announced as the winner of the presidency until the next day,” Boyle said. “Richard Nixon was not announced as the winner of the presidency in 1968 until the next day. And then what happened was sort of an explosion of exit polls that made it easier to pick a winner faster, to name a winner faster. And many elections were not very close until 2000.”

Beyond delays in vote counting, experts also say legal challenges are possible before a final announcement is made.

Sharon McMahon, a podcast host and former educator known as “America’s Government Teacher,” said there are “a very, very large number of lawsuits that are already in the process and will be filed.”

“There are already over 100 lawsuits in the process related to the election, and there are absolutely more that are sitting on attorneys’ desks. They’re just waiting to put in the right details and they’re waiting to file,” McMahon said. “If we think there have been over 60 lawsuits in post-2020 elections, it will probably be double this election.”

So what would it take to find out the results sooner?

Giangreco said there is a scenario where the results could come closer to Election Day.

“Only if (Donald) Trump wins Wisconsin or Michigan,” Giangreco said. “If they win any of these states, it’s probably all over. And if we know those states on Wednesday, that’s probably what it will be. I think the most likely path for Kamala Harris to the presidency is the blue wall: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania.”

It is unclear whether this will happen.

“The bottom line is, if the polls are right and things are even, there’s a massive advantage for Harris in the field, especially in the blue wall states, and I think that’s her ticket to win. If there’s the response bias that we saw in 2016 and we’ve seen in 2020, where the polls don’t count Trump voters, then you might be looking at Trump really having four or five points in all these states, and he’s going to be an electoral landslide. for Trump and maybe even a popular vote win. So either the polls are right and Harris’ ground operation will win it, or the polls are wrong and it’s going to be a good night for Trump.”

Another potential scenario looms this fall: “contingent elections” of president and vice president that would happen if no one could secure the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidential election.

That hasn’t happened in the modern era, but there are some conceivable (if unlikely) paths on the Electoral College map that could lead to Trump and Harris ending the race tied at 269 electoral votes.

In case of a tie, Congress will decide the next president.