What time will the US election results be announced and when will we know the winner?

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

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

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

With two of the seven key swing statesPennsylvania and Wisconsin, which cannot begin processing certain early ballots until Election Day, will likely delay the announcement of the final winner again.

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What time will the results of the US elections be announced?

The election results are announced when one of the candidates reaches the 270 votes needed to obtain an overall majority in the Electoral College.

Within a few hours after the first polls close at 6:00 PM ET, results from most states are pouring in. Polls stay open the longest in western Alaska and Hawaii, where they don’t close until 1 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 voter-calling operations in the country, immediately called 26 states when their 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 of which are swing states in this election – were not called until days later.

When Pennsylvania was called four days later, Biden crossed 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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