2 weeks Ago By Lawrence Wilson
As polls close on Nov. 5, Americans will be eager to learn the result of the presidential election. Sometimes experts are able to accurately predict a winner on election night or early the next day, usually when the result is lopsided.
Technically, that’s true of all states. Yet some states have reliably favored one party or the other for decades, so there’s little doubt about who will win in 2024. Polls close in Georgia at 7 p.
m., North Carolina at 7:30 p.m.
, Pennsylvania and Michigan at 8 p.m., Arizona and Wisconsin at 9 p.
m., and Nevada at 10 p.m.
All times are stated in Eastern Time. According to the AP, that comes down to analyzing the known vote tallies and asking: Is there any scenario in which the trailing candidate can catch up? When they are satisfied that the answer is no, they project the winner. In 2016, the AP declared Donald Trump the winner at 2:29 a.
m. ET on Nov. 9, less than three hours after the last polls closed.
But in 2020, the AP didn’t declare Joe Biden the winner until 11:26 a.m. ET on Nov.
7, four days after Election Day. Many states have worked to speed up the process this year by using ballot-counting machines and implementing rules to allow early votes to be tabulated before Election Day. In close races, neither candidate may concede for weeks, if at all.
In 2000, Vice President Al Gore initially conceded defeat shortly after the polls closed but retracted his statement when additional returns showed the race in Florida was too close to call. After losing a court battle concerning the Florida recount, Gore conceded a second time on Dec. 13.
Michigan’s certification is scheduled for Nov. 22 and North Carolina’s for Dec. 26.
The final certification will occur on Jan. 6, 2025, when the U.S.
Congress meets in a joint session to count the electoral votes..
