November 5, 2024

We all want to know who won the election, but it could take a while to get the result — so here’s what you should be looking for in the meantime, those all-important clues that could point to a winner.

We all want to know who won the election, but it could take a while to get the result — so here’s what you should be looking for in the meantime, those all-important clues that could point to a winner.

Voting ends in the US today, November 5. The first polls close at 18:00 EST, so 23:00 in the UK, and the last at 01:00 EST, so 6:00 UK time on the 6th.

Most states, like Texas or California, are comfortably red or blue—Republican or Democrat.

But others could go either way, and the results could be incredibly narrow when they do. In those swing states – only seven of them – the election will be won.

Among the first places to start bringing you results will be Florida, with early results coming in about an hour after polls close, so around 8:00 p.m. local time. That’s because they start processing in-person early votes and mail-in ballots there before Election Day, unlike other states.

Florida has been a swing state in the past, but the Donald Trump effect has turned it into a rich Republican red. But the result there, if it’s well ahead of the 2020 numbers, could be an indicator.

What we have to look for at the same time as Florida is what is happening in Georgia and North Carolina.

Polls are closing in Georgia at the same time as Florida, and the Harris campaign is expecting nearly full results on election night. If he does well in this state, that’s again a big indicator of whether he can win or if Trump closes his way to victory.

Polls in North Carolina close 30 minutes after Georgia. We expect almost full results again in the evening. This hasn’t gone Democratic since 2008, but was won by Trump last time. So again, a pointer – we may know how this race goes, close or not so close.

Then, at 8:00 p.m. local time, polls close in Pennsylvania, right in the so-called Rust Belt.

In 2020, when Pennsylvania was called four days after the election for Joe Biden, it was game over for Donald Trump.

But this is a particularly tough race. The margins in the polls are even tighter than in 2020. And Pennsylvania can’t start processing mail-in ballots until Election Day, so counting here will go into the night and into the next day.

It is similar to Michigan. Polls close there an hour after Pennsylvania. Michigan’s Secretary of State has estimated that unofficial results can be expected by midday tomorrow – that’s late Wednesday afternoon in the UK. If this swing state goes Republican, that could be bad news for Kamala Harris.

And of course there are the other Sun Belt states of Arizona and Nevada. Both states took days to count votes in 2020 — and again we’re expecting a wait.

But because there are generally fewer mail-in ballots in this election in America than last time — because many voted by mail then because of Covid — the assumption is that we should feel like another winner sooner than last time , when Joe Biden was declared president-elect on Saturday.

How do you know when there is a winner? In the US, it’s not technically over until the winner is certified by Congress on January 6 – you might remember what it was like the last time…

But in reality, you can tell long before then. The best way to find out is to watch a reliable news source and see when the states call.

There’s a lot to watch in the coming days, but we’ll be here throughout the countdown.