U.S. Elections: It may take even days to make it known who won

Time counts backwards for the crucial presidential election in the US, on November 5 with their opponents and . However, it may take even days after the polls close, this bilateral election match between Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump until it becomes known who is the winner. When counting the ballots, a candidate may appear to be ahead on the basis of the first results, but his opponent may make up the difference as other votes are counted. In 2020 some states experienced a “red illusion”, with Trump appearing to be leading the election night, before there was a “blue turn” that showed Democrat Joe Biden to overcome him, a phenomenon Trump used to boost his false claims of stealing his election. Nothing strange had happened. Democrats tend to live in more populous urban areas, where vote counting takes longer. Democrats also more easily embraced the epistolic vote than the Republicans after Trump’s false claims that the epistolic vote is unreliable, and ballots sent by post need more time to be counted than those of Election Day. For this year’s election Trump has and encourages and criticizes the early and epistolic vote. Democrats surpass Republicans in the epistolic vote once again in this year’s election, according to a system of monitoring the early voting of the University of Florida Electoral Workshop, although Republicans have reduced the difference. In addition there are 7 crucial states, the so-called swing states, which are likely to judge the outcome of the election, each of which has its own rules for managing and counting ballots. Here is what we can expect on Election Day and beyond: Sweet home Arizona The epistolic vote is extremely popular in Arizona, nearly 90% of its voters exercised their electoral right prematurely, mostly by mail, in the 2020 election. Election officials in Arizona can begin editing and classifying epistolic votes as soon as they receive them, but the results can only be made public after an hour has passed since the ballot was closed. Also any epistolic votes sent on the very day of the election cannot be processed until the polls have been closed. This is often quite a large number – in 2022 these “late early” votes made up one fifth of all ballots in Maricompa County, the largest in the state – and may take days to count. The first results on the night of the election are expected to concern mainly early voting, which could favour Harris, but then the figures change for Trump’s benefit as election day votes are counted. Georgia Living early voting is popular in this state, where officials expect that 65 to 70% of ballots will be submitted to early voting points. The ballots of American voters living abroad, are in the military or cannot or do not want to vote by life or the epistolic votes may begin to be processed – which includes steps such as verification of signatures – two weeks before the election, but officials should wait until Election Day to begin counting them. All early votes – through life and epistolic – must have been counted and announced by 20:00 local time (02:00 Greek time) on the night of the election, according to the state law, which could create a “blue illusion” for Harris at the beginning. Officials intend to count all votes, including those on Election Day, by midnight. Votes from abroad and the military voting will be accepted up to three days after the election, if they carry a postmark dated until 5 November. Over 21,000 ballots of this kind were requested, so if there is a limit difference, the result in Georgia will not be judged until these votes are counted. Michigan After the 2020 election, Michigan first established the early live vote and began allowing administrative districts with over 5,000 people to begin editing and counting the epistolic votes 8 days before Election Day. Smaller regions can do the same on the day before 5 November. Officials hope that these changes will allow the state to get the results out faster than in 2020 when the epistolic votes could not be processed in advance. This created a “red mirage” on the night of the 2020 election, when the state’s first counts of Election Day votes favored Trump. Biden eventually surpassed Trump thanks to the epistolic votes, which took longer to count. Trump falsely claimed he was a victim of fraud. Nevada The slow counting of votes in this state in 2020 – news networks did not declare Biden as its winner until five days after Election Day — gave food to countless memes, but officials state that changes that have since had to speed up the process. The counties were mainly allowed to begin editing and counting the epistolic votes on October 21. In addition, electoral officials can begin counting early votes by living votes at 08:00 local time (17:00 Greek time) on Election Day, rather than waiting until the polls close. However, Nevada may still not work immediately. The epistolic vote became popular in the state and it is also the only one of the amphipods to accept the epistolic votes that arrive late. This could also lead to a “blue turn” as more votes are counted. Any ballot with a postmark dated until 5 November will be counted if it arrives within four days. These late ballots traditionally favor Democrats, so a turn to Harris may arise as votes are counted after Election Day. North Carolina Election officials begin to process and scan epistolic votes before Election Day. After the polls are closed, the first results announced concern mainly epistolic votes, as well as early votes by living votes. Election Day votes will be counted and announced during the night, with the overall results expected by midnight. Harris may appear to lead initially thanks to the epistolic votes, while Trump could bridge the difference as election day votes are counted. If the showdown is as ambiguous as polls show, the result in North Carolina can remain unclear for a week or longer. The ballots of American voters living abroad, are in the army or cannot or do not want to vote by life that will arrive on November 5 are counted during the 10-day period following Election Day. In 2020, news networks did not declare Trump a winner in North Carolina until November 13, or 10 days after the election. Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, perhaps the most important battlefield of the election, did not have a clear winner in 2020 for four days after Election Day, as election officials had a huge volume of epistolic votes to manage. This state is located between only one handful that do not allow election officials to process or count the epistolic votes by 07:00 local time (13:00 Greek time) of Election Day, which means it is likely that it will take days before the result is known. As more Democrats from Republicans vote by correspondence, the first results, based on live votes on Election Day, will probably show Trump ahead, but his progress will likely shrink as more epistolic votes are counted. This pattern in 2020 led Trump to mistakenly claim to have become a fraud. This year, a new law requires most counties to announce on election night how many epistolic votes remain to be counted in an attempt to prevent conspiracy theories. Wisconsin Like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin is one of the few states that does not allow election officials to process or count the epistolic votes by the morning of Election Day, which means there can be a delay in announcing the results of early votes. In addition, many of the largest cities in the state carry the epistolic votes to a central location for processing and counting. This can lead to all the results being announced together by significant batches of votes early in the morning after the closing of the polling centres. In 2020, Trump and his allies wrongly denounced electoral fraud, since Milwaukee, the largest city in the state, announced the results from nearly 170,000 ballots of American voters living abroad, are in the army or cannot or do not want to vote by life, around 03:30 local time (10:30 Greek time), giving Biden a huge rise, which led him to take the lead for the first time. However, this increase was expected due to the way the city processes these ballots and the fact that Democrats were more likely to vote by mail. A similar pattern is likely to occur in 2024.