Today the United States will experience a new election day that promises to be crucial both for him future of the country as for the global political scene. The election of the next American president will be decided in the next few hours between Donald Trump, who represents the Republican Party and seeks to regain the presidency after his defeat in 2020, and Kamala Harriscurrent vice president of the Democratic Party, who could become the first woman to lead the nation. The whole world will be waiting and one of the big questions that arises is: when will the results be known?
The complexity of the electoral system and time zones
The United States, being a large country, has multiple time zones that directly affect the time in which the first results will be known. The polls will close starting at 1:00 amSpanish time, in some parts of Indiana and Kentuckywhich will mark the beginning of the vote counting in the eastern states. On the other hand, in the West Coastwhere states like California and Washington have great electoral weight, the voting centers will remain open until 6:00 a.m.Spanish time, which means that the final results for these areas will take time to be known.
However, most of the decisive statesthose who can lean towards any candidate and who They usually define the final resultthey will have closed their polls between 4:00 and 6:00 amSpanish time. It is at that moment when the scrutiny in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Arizona or Georgia, where the results can give an idea of the general trend.
Factors that slow down the announcement of results
One of the factors that has most slowed down The announcement of the results in the last elections has been the absentee ballot and the absentee vote. For years, American citizens have had the option of vote before election dayeither by sending your ballots by mail or going to early voting centers. However, most states do not allow these votes to be counted until the polls close on election day itself, which can delay the process significantly.
This system became evident in the 2020 electionswhen, due to the Covid-19 pandemicvoting by mail reached unprecedented levels, representing almost half of the votes cast. As a result, the counting of these ballots it lasted for several daysdelaying the official announcement of the winner until four days after the polls closed. This time, although the number of mail-in votes may not be as high, recounts could take longer in key states where there is a lot of competition.
Expectations and possible delays
Although the major American television networks usually offer projections based on surveys and exit pollsthe nature of these elections, with their high level of polarization and the importance of voting by mail, makes the results may take time to confirm. Furthermore, Donald Trump has already raised the possibility of fraudwhich has generated tensions between Republican and Democratic voters.
Although provisional results could begin to offer clues along the early morning of November 6a winner may not be declared until the votes are fully counted, which could extend beyond election day itself, as happened in 2020. In any case, the world will be in suspense until it is revealed whether it will be Trump who returns to the White House or Harris who makes history by becoming the first female president of the United States.
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