COLUMBUS, Ohio — Political experts are warning that we might not know who the next president will be on election night. It all depends on how close the election is, and right now, it looks to be very close.
"Every indication would suggest there's going to be some close states and there's going to be some closeness in the electoral college, and it just takes some time," University of Cincinnati Political Science Professor David Niven said.
"The short answer is, we're not sure when we'll know," Ohio State University Political Science Professor Emeritus Herb Asher said.
To win the election, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris need 270 Electoral College votes.
Niven and Asher say the seven swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are key, especially Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
"If we know the results of those states and one candidate carries all three, then I think we can predict pretty well who will be elected president," Asher said.
If the vote margins in those states are razor-thin, it could be a long night.
"How close is the individual state and how close is the electoral college, such that, would that state tilt the whole outcome?" Niven said.
"If the margin is just a few thousand votes, we may have to wait until all the votes come in in a state, and that could be the next day or so," Asher said.
In Ohio, boards of elections can process absentee ballots when they come in so they can be counted as soon as the polls close on election day. Wisconsin and Pennsylvania can not do that under their laws.
"That really puts them behind the ball," Niven said. "They're going through every absentee ballot that comes in and every signature starting on election day."
Niven and Asher say, if it's a landslide, we will know the winner early in the night. However, recent presidential elections have been anything but landslides.
"With closer elections, you just need more of the vote to be finished and counted before you can know what happened," Niven said. "If this were Ronald Reagan running up a 49-state electoral college landslide against Walter Mondale, we'd know the outcome before we went to bed."
"It's much better to get it right than to get it done quickly," Asher said.
If the election ends in a 269-269 tie in the Electoral College, the U.S. House of Representatives will decide who the next president will be.
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