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After polls shut within the US presidential election, it could take days and even weeks to seek out out if Donald Trump or Joe Biden has received.
In this election, thousands and thousands extra Americans have been voting by publish due to coronavirus, that means a delay in counting all of the votes is extremely doubtless.
When do we normally get a US election result?
The result is normally referred to as on the night time of election day, which this 12 months is Tuesday 3 November.
Different states cease voting at completely different occasions. The first polls shut on the East Coast at 19:00 native time (00:00 GMT).
This is adopted by a working whole of votes as they’re reported in every state.
The full rely isn’t accomplished on election night time – however sufficient votes are normally in to substantiate a winner.
A state is “called” by main US media shops once they imagine one candidate has an unbeatable lead.
But at this stage, when most however not all the votes will have been counted, that is a projection, not the ultimate result.
US presidents are usually not determined by the nationwide vote, however by successful sufficient states.
The winner in every state takes a sure variety of “electoral votes” primarily based roughly on the dimensions of its inhabitants.
To win the White House, 270 electoral votes are wanted.
In 2016, the election was referred to as for Donald Trump at about 02:30 EST (07:30 GMT), after victory in Wisconsin put him over the 270.
Why is that this 12 months completely different?
The coronavirus pandemic means extra folks than ever are voting by publish.
Postal votes usually take longer to rely as they need to undergo extra steps to be verified, reminiscent of a signature and tackle verify.
Some states, reminiscent of Florida and Ohio, enable this course of to begin weeks earlier than election day, so the votes are able to be counted.
In these states, it might be doable to name a winner on election night time, relying on how shut the races are.
But different states, reminiscent of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, do not enable early votes to be processed till polling day.
These states could be essential – and election officers have stated counts could take days.
The approach sure states course of votes can be more likely to skew early counts:
- In states that wait till election day to course of postal votes, preliminary numbers are more likely to favour President Trump as extra Republicans are anticipated to vote in particular person on polling day and these votes will be faster to rely
- In states that course of early votes earlier than election day, the preliminary numbers are anticipated to favour Mr Biden as extra registered Democrats than Republicans have voted early
This is why election officers have warned the early outcomes might not present the total image.
There have been delays in different polls this 12 months – the 23 states that had held election contests after mid-March had taken a mean of 4 days to report practically full outcomes, a Washington Post evaluation discovered.
What else would possibly delay the rely?
About half of states will settle for postal ballots that arrive after election day, so long as they’re postmarked by 3 November, so some votes will not be counted till days after the election.
There’s additionally anticipated to be a rise in provisional ballots – votes forged by individuals who requested a postal poll however determined to vote in particular person as an alternative.
And these will not be included within the preliminary rely, as they require checks to make sure folks do not vote twice.
Will issues be regular at polling stations?
Millions of individuals will nonetheless be turning as much as vote on election day – however fewer polling stations than ordinary will be open partly due to coronavirus issues, and considerations have been raised about employee shortages, that means lengthy queues are doubtless.
Familiar issues reminiscent of defective voting machines could additionally trigger delays.
How are votes counted?
Most ballots – paper or digital – are counted by machines.
But ballot staff have to verify any paper ballots the machines fail to course of.
After polls shut, the voting knowledge will be transferred to a central election headquarters – a metropolis corridor or related location.
Sometimes, that is performed electronically.
But elsewhere, reminiscence playing cards holding the voting knowledge should be bodily delivered or the outcomes learn out over the cellphone.
Once the vote tallies are delivered, they’re going to usually begin to present up on a state’s official web site.
In different instances, journalists are informed the tallies by state election officers and report these outcomes.
When sufficient votes have been tallied from throughout a state to find out an unbeatable lead, information organisations name a successful presidential candidate for that state.
These unofficial outcomes are licensed solely weeks later, when confirmed by state officers.
The closing vote tallies can shift between the primary rely and these licensed outcomes however not drastically.
What occurs if the election outcomes are disputed?
The pandemic has already led to greater than 300 election regulation instances in 44 states, in accordance the Stanford-MIT healthy-elections mission.
And the presidential vote could see authorized challenges over every thing from identification necessities for postal voting to Covid-related modifications to polling methods.
President Trump says the election result could find yourself within the US Supreme Court.
In 2000, Democrat Al Gore misplaced Florida and the presidential election by 537 out of a whole of virtually six million votes.
And this was adopted by a extremely controversial recount course of that lasted over a month – and the Supreme Court ruling in favour of Republican George W Bush.
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