When Will We Know the Winner of the US Presidential Election?

It’s a tight race this year.

So, the 2020 US presidential election day is finally here. It’s a very exciting and stressful day for some as millions of Americans cast their vote.

For the rest of us in other places around the world, it’s also a bit of a nail-biter.

i’m too invested in this election for someone who isn’t american #USElection pic.twitter.com/aG38N69mPh

— sag 🦋 (@sagalsaed_) November 4, 2020

As we watch closely with popcorn at the ready, a lot of us have already called who we think might win, who we would prefer to win, and who might get the popular vote between Republican Donald Trump and Democratic contender Joe Biden.

At the time of writing, Joe Biden is looking like the likely winner but the bigger question on many people's minds this morning is: what time will we know the official result of the US election and not just our mates' guess?

This question is kind of loaded because there are a few things to consider including how the US election actually works, early votes, and how many people register and actually vote.

Plus, you've got to know when the polls close, when the votes actually stop being cast, and if any recounts are needed.

So, let’s break it down.

When will we know the results of the Presidential Election? Vote now at https://t.co/UCpx3FqWfX - results LIVE this hour @CNN @cnni #2020 current tally: pic.twitter.com/uJWqJbIod2

— Michael Smerconish (@smerconish) October 31, 2020

How do elections in the US work?

Before we go into the details about how this election is going, it’s important to understand how the US election works, because it operates a little differently from other democratic countries around the world like Australia.

Essentially, the president and the vice-president are elected through a system called the electoral college. Even though it sounds like a university, it actually refers to a group of 538 people who are formal electors in each state.

So, while Americans make such a big deal about their presidential candidate, they’re not actually voting for the president, they’re voting for electors.

Each elector represents one vote in the electoral college and because there are 50 states and 538 electors, some states obviously have more electors than others based on their size and population.

The aim of the presidential candidates is to win the majority of electoral votes, which is won when they reach 270. This essentially means that the president is elected based on how many US states they win, not how many votes they actually get.

So, in this case, a president can get elected even if they don’t win the popular vote. This is exactly what happened in the 2016 election when Donald Trump won but Hillary Clinton held the popular vote.

What's the deal with voting?

You may already know, but in the US, voting or registering to vote is not mandatory. This is the exact opposite of Australia where you can cop a nasty fine if you don’t cast your vote.

What’s interesting about this year's US election is that there are record numbers of people voting.

Record numbers of mailed-in early votes have been flying in since September due to the coronavirus pandemic. Before election day even started, more than 95 million votes had already been cast.

But what about the people lining up at the polls? Well, most of those votes began this morning, but each state started and will close at slightly different times due to their different time zones.

The voting starts to close in some states from about 10am AEST. From there, the polls in Indiana, Kentucky, Georgia, and Vermont will close.

From about 11:30am AEST polls in North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia close, and then from 12pm 22 more states will close their voting. This includes Maryland, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and parts of Texas.

Florida, Pennsylvania and Michigan will also close at around noon AEST.

At 1pm AEST Minnesota, New York, Colorado, Wisconsin and Louisiana will close as well as Arizona and the rest of Texas.

From 2pm AEST Idaho, Iowa, Oregon, Nevada, Utah and Montana close, and from 3pm California and Washington will close.

Finally, from 5pm AEST Alaska will be the last state to finish off the polls.

For now, most of the polls have closed so it may be a little while longer before we have an answer.

It's important to note that even if polls are supposed to close at a certain time, if there are still voters lined up to cast their say, the polls have to stay open until everyone who intends to vote gets the chance. So, in some cases, polls may stay open later than expected.

Additionally, it's vital to consider that sometimes recounts need to happen because invalid votes are a thing and there are a lot of votes to get through.

So, when will we know?

It’s really hard to put an exact time on when the world will have the final result of the 2020 US election. It’s always a tough call to make and this year’s election is turning out to be a very close one.

As most polls should be closed by 1pm AEST, we should get an indication sometime after then if the race isn’t too tight.

What if we don’t get a result tonight?

Because there have been so many mail-in ballots and early voting, it has been predicted that some states could take several days or even some weeks to finish counting the votes, so we may not have a result by the end of the day.

In this case, the only thing we can do is wait.

If you want to keep up with the current count and live results, you can track it here.

So, I hope you’re sitting comfortably, ‘cos you may be in for a long night.

How the rest of the world is waiting on the #USElection results....😭😭 pic.twitter.com/PiynIFH2Nr

— 👋🏽Ven.Q🌱 (@i_quarri) November 4, 2020

Header Image: Chip Somodevilla via Getty Images