WASHINGTON — After polls close on election night, it will become a waiting game for results to come trickling in.
Attention will shift to The Associated Press and the major TV networks to report the results and announce who will be the next president.
So how long will it take to know who won the presidency?
It all depends on how close the election is, and right now, it looks to be very close.
Some years, that official race call came within hours of the first polls closing. But in recent years, it's taken longer to know for sure which candidate has won enough electoral votes to win the White House. With such a close election, it's very likely we won't know the next president on Election Day.
In the last four presidential races, three of them were announced either on election night or into the early hours of the next morning. The 2020 election is the outlier, with Joe Biden being declared the winner four days after Election Day.
Ohio State University Political Science Professor Emeritus Herb Asher said 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.
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If the vote margins in those states are razor-thin, it could be a long night.
In this election, results will begin to be announced after polls close in each individual state on election night. But it may take some time before we know who the next president will be.
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.
WHERE CAN I GET ELECTION RESULTS?
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