Election day is preparing to turn into Election Week, or even Election Month, for millions of voters across the country.

In 2020, the last polls closed on Tuesday 3 November, but ran for four days – until Saturday 7 November – for President Biden to be the projected winner due to delays in the tabulation of ballots, leading to unsubstantiated claims of fraud by Donald Trump and his allies that continues to reverberate.

This time, even without the confounding of a global pandemic, Republicans and Democrats will be waiting a while longer for more states to determine their results.

While the slowness in some of these states won’t be crucial to the outcome of the presidential race, they could delay calls in key down-ballot races — as well as the battle for control of Congress.

Here are some of the slowest slowpokes among the 50 states.

Alaska

Polls close: 12:00 PM ET Wednesday in most of the state, 1:00 AM Wednesday in parts of the Aleutian Islands.

Despite having the third-smallest population of any state in the Union, the Last Frontier is notorious for being one of the last to count its ballots due to specific electoral rules and a dispersed, largely rural population.

State law requires that early votes submitted to regional election offices on or before the Thursday before Election Day (Oct. 31, in this case) be counted on Election Night.

However, absentee ballots and early votes cast after this time frame must be counted seven days after polls close (November 12), according to the Alaska Division of Elections.

That means the House race between incumbent Democrat Mary Peltola and Republican challenger Nick Begich III could be among the last to be called.

Arizona

Polls close: 9 p.m. ET

Arizona allows election officials to begin processing mail-in ballots after early voting begins — but requires essential officials to wait until the polls are near to count them.

During the 2022 midterms, about 20 percent of mail-in ballots were abandoned on Election Day, requiring time-consuming verification procedures to ensure ballots were legitimate.

Most of the votes will be cast in Maricopa County, which includes metro Phoenix and contains about three-fifths of Arizona’s population. In 2022, election officials had until the Sunday after polling day to complete ballot processing.

There’s also the potential for litigation that could cause further delays in declaring a result not just in the presidential race, but also in the 1st Congressional District, currently held by Republican David Schweikert and declared a “tossup” by the Cook Political Report.

Biden won Arizona over Trump by 0.3 percent four years ago.

California

Polls close: 11 p.m. ET

The nation’s most populous state has a notorious history of taking days and even weeks to complete the rudimentary task of counting votes.

This is largely due to the fact that most Californians vote by mail. During the 2020 cycle, 72% of votes came from mail-in ballots. During the 2024 primary, this figure rose to 89%, on dates from the California Secretary of State’s office.

The Golden State requires county officials to go through an extensive signature verification process and allows polling stations 30 days to count ballots — a much longer time frame than the seven days offered by most other sending states by correspondence.

Vice President Kamala Harris (Bay Area native) is almost certain to get California’s 54 electoral votes in the presidential election. But no fewer than five House Republicans (John Duarte, David ValadaoMike Garcia, Ken Calvert and Michelle Steele), could face a very anxious Thanksgiving, waiting to see if they return to Washington in January 2025.

Nevada

Polls close: 10 p.m. ET

The Silver State was the third-to-last state to call for Biden four years ago, and he’s taken steps to make sure they’re a little faster this time.

Nevada allows mail-in ballots to be counted up to four days after the election, provided they are postmarked on or before Election Day.

Earlier this year, Nevada Secretary of State Cisco Aguilar officials informed that they can start recording early votes in person as the ballots come in on Election Day, rather than waiting until after the polls close, meaning we should have a clearer picture of the state of the race as Tuesday turns into Wednesday.

However, with polls showing a close race between Harris and Trump, who hopes to be the first Republican since George W. Bush in 2004 to take Nevada, it is likely to be a long wait for both the Democratic and and for the GOP.

North Carolina

Polls close: 7:30 p.m. ET

In 2020, North Carolina was not called for Trump until 10 days after the election (only Georgia took longer to project a winner).

While it might not take as long to pick a winner this time around, the Tar Heel State has a new policy that would make ballot processing even slower than before.

Unlike four years ago, officials are no longer allowed to count early votes until after the polls close on Nov. 5 because of a State Law put into effect last year.

Pennsylvania

Polls close: 8 p.m. ET

The state that many believe will decide the presidency does not allow any ballots to be counted before Election Day, which has historically led to delays in projecting a result.

Four years ago, most media outlets called Nov. 7 the Keystone State for Biden, sparking wild celebrations among his supporters.

This time, officials will be hoping for a result similar to 2016, when Trump was predicted to win the state in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Wisconsin

Polls close: 9 p.m. ET

History doesn’t necessarily suggest Wisconsin will be as slow as some of the others on this list. But the results may not be ready on election night.

Under Wisconsin law, ballots cannot be counted until Election Day. Complicating matters is that the Badger State appears to be one of the few where early and absentee voting has not declined since the COVID pandemic. even causing delays to some sites in person last week.

Four years ago, Wisconsin didn’t call for Biden until the day after the polls closed.

Will Georgia fight again?

Polls close: 7 p.m. ET

Georgia was the last state named four years ago.

Since then, the parliamentarians in the state of Piersici have taken measures aimed at speeding up the reporting of results and reforming the electoral process.

The biggest step was the passage of the Election Integrity Act of 2021, which Democrats led by Biden vilified as voter suppression, with the president describing it as “Jim Crow 2.0.”

The new law was intended to streamline and strengthen resources for ballot processing and verification. Absentee ballots now require the last four digits of a social security number or a copy of ID to minimize the complexity of signature verification.

Despite the controversy, Georgia’s elections went smoothly in 2022. This year, voters have advance vote already shattered record turnout, with over 2.1 million ballots already cast and another 320,000 ballots requested, on dates from Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office.

“All early voting and early accepted ballots will all have their results reported by 8:00 p.m.,” Raffensperger told CBS’ “Face the Nation” at the beginning of this month. “That means 70, maybe even 75 percent of the total votes will be reported no later than 8 p.m. on election night.”

Also auspicious for a quick result in Georgia is the fact that a Fulton County recent judge imposed a last-minute rule by the Georgia State Board of Elections, which mandated officials to analyze handball ballots.

What about Michigan?

Polls close: 8:00 PM ET in most of the state, 9:00 PM ET in parts of the Upper Peninsula

Another state that was requested Biden in Wednesday’s 2020 electionMichigan took steps toward faster reporting of results, allowing precincts with more than 5,000 voters to begin counting mail-in ballots on Oct. 28.

As a result, Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson is predicting that her condition will have unofficial results no later than one day after the final votes are cast.