Next week's election: Why Americans might wait days to know their next president
With election day approaching next week Harris and Trump are neck-and-neck in polls. The result declaration could take anywhere from hours to weeks depending on vote margins and possible court-cases
Next weeks presidential match-up between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump looks like its going to be super-tight‚ based on pre-election data
The vote-counting process might be quick – or drag on for quite a while (depending on how close the numbers are). Exit-polls will start coming out at 5pm ET on election-day; however news channels cant announce winners while people are still voting
Hereʼs what happens with exit-polls:
- They dont release results for close-call states
- They mix actual votes with poll data
- They collect info about voter choices and backgrounds
- They wait for clear winning margins
The official timeline is pretty drawn-out: states need to double-check their numbers first; then Congress makes it official on jan 6th 2025. Looking back at past elections – the 2000 race between Al Gore and George W Bush took over a month to settle because of Floridaʼs super-close count
America‚ Iʼm honoured that you have chosen me to lead our great country
The last election back in 2020 took about four days to call – thats when Joe Biden got enough votes in Pennsylvania to win. But if this years race ends up being really tight we might see some court-fights that could make the waiting even longer
Remember that time in 2021 when the Capitol got stormed during vote counting? Well the same process will happen again – but hopefully without any drama this time
