Americans go to the polls on November 5 to vote for either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump in the US elections.

In 2016, the country learned on election night that Trump had defeated Hillary Clinton to become president in a surprising result that baffled pollsters.

But in 2020, when Joe Biden ousted Trump in a close race, the country was forced to wait four days for the result to be announced due to delays in counting absentee and mail-in ballots.

With two of seven key swing statesWith Pennsylvania and Wisconsin unable to begin processing certain early ballots until Election Day, the announcement of the overall winner will likely be delayed once again.

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What time are the US election results announced?

The election result will be declared when one of the candidates passes the 270 votes needed to have an absolute majority in the electoral college.

Within hours of the first polls closing at 6:00 PM ET, results from most states will be flooding in. Polls will remain open most in western Alaska and Hawaii, where they don’t close until 1:00 a.m. ET.

Each state processes and counts ballots in different ways, and individual rules determine how quickly results are released.

When will we know the winner?

In 2020, the Associated Press, which has one of the largest polling operations in the country, instantly called 26 states as the polls closed and five more within an hour.

Another 45 states and the District of Columbia were called within 24 hours. However, PennsylvaniaNevada, North Carolina and Georgia – all swing states in this election – were not called until days later.

When Pennsylvania was called four days later, Mr. Biden passed the 270-vote threshold to secure the White House. But it took a total of 10 days for North Carolina to be called for Trump and 19 days for Biden to win Georgia — the last state to declare.

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