The roadmap to the US election When will it be clear who has won?
The 2024 US presidential election is one of the most unusual and historically significant. Election procedure, swing states, deadlines: blue News explains what you need to know.
Who is running for president?
Donald Trump is running against Kamala Harris after Joe Biden dropped out of the race following an unsuccessful first TV duel with Trump.
The Republican vice-presidential candidate is J. D. Vance. Harris is entering the election campaign with Tim Walz as his running mate.
When will the election take place?
The most important dates of the 2024 US election
- Tuesday, November 5, 2024: Election day in the USA. Today, US citizens vote for the Electoral College. In some states, it was also possible to vote earlier. Absentee ballots from home and abroad have also already arrived.
In addition to the president, candidates for Congress are also elected, both for the House of Representatives and the Senate. - November 5, 2024 in the evening: The first states close their polling stations from 6 p.m. local time. The counting of votes begins.
- December 17: The Electoral College elects the next US President.
- January 6, 2025: On this day, the US Congress counts the Electoral College ballots and the two winners are officially announced.
- January 20, 2025: Inauguration Day (inauguration of the new president in Washington, D.C.) The winner will rule the White House for the next four years starting today.
blue News reports live
All the latest news and results are available around the clock: our news reporters will be reporting live from Volketswil, Granges-Paccot, Ticino and San Francisco during the election days.
When will the results of the 2024 US election be known?
As soon as one of the candidates gets over 269 electoral votes, it is clear who has won the election. However, the exact results will take longer. The actual counting of votes in the USA always takes many days to weeks.
In clear-cut states, a winner is often declared quickly with the help of projections, usually immediately after the polls close. However, this does not mean that all votes have already been definitively counted at this point.
In the 2020 election, the result was announced four days after November 3, after Pennsylvania had certified its results. This state gave Biden the decisive 20 electoral votes to exceed the required 270. In 2016, Hillary Clinton conceded defeat to Trump the morning after the election.
The votes are counted in each state after the polling stations close, with closing times varying depending on the state, usually from 6 or 7 pm local time, in the East Coast states at 0 am or 1 am Swiss time, in the West Coast states three hours later, i.e. at 3 am or 4 am.
Due to the different time zones in the USA, votes are already being counted on the East Coast, while voting is still taking place in Alaska and Hawaii.
When do the polling stations close?
All figures in Swiss time
- 1 a.m.: Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia
- 1.30 a.m.: Ohio, North Carolina, West Virginia
- 2 a.m.: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Washington D.C.
- 2:30 a.m.: Arkansas
- 3 o'clock: Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin, Wyoming
- 4 o'clock: Montana, Nevada, Utah
- 5 o'clock: Idaho, California, Oregon, Washington
- 6 o'clock: Hawaii
- 7 o'clock: Alaska
The first indications of how the evening will go will be shortly after 7pm in Georgia and after 7.30pm in North Carolina, i.e. from 1am and 1.30am Swiss time respectively.
Polls in the seven contested states that will decide the presidential race will close between 7 and 10 p.m. Eastern Time, which is between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. Swiss time.
When are the results from the swing states?
- In Georgia, counting starts at 1 a.m. European time (CET).
- Half an hour later, North Carolina (1.30 a.m.) will join in.
- After that, the votes from Pennsylvania are expected from 2 am.
- Michigan, Arizona, Louisiana and Wisconsin will be counted from 3 am.
- In Nevada, projections will begin at 4 o'clock.
However, if the election is as close as current predictions suggest, it will take longer in the contested swing states. In some states, the final result may not even be known until days later. If the margin is less than 0.5% in a state, a recount can be requested. If there are legal challenges to the election, the process may be further delayed.
If Harris does well in these states, it could indicate that the outcome is not solely dependent on the slow-counting states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Conversely, if Trump leads in the battleground southern states, Harris would still have a plausible chance of winning, but the world would have to wait longer for the final result.
It could take a few days or even weeks for the postal votes to be fully counted. It is also possible that a so-called blue wave could occur afterwards, as there are usually more Democratic voters among the postal voters than Republican voters. In the 2020 election, close results and the high number of postal votes meant that the media did not declare a uniform winner until four days after the election. Georgia was the last state to publish its result ten days after the election.
Why are the swing states so important?
The road to the White House passes through a few crucial states that play a disproportionate role on election day. These states often swing narrowly between Democrats and Republicans.
Which seven states are swing states?
- Pennsylvania (19 electoral votes)
- Arizona (11 electoral votes)
- Georgia (16 electoral votes)
- Wisconsin (10 electoral votes)
- Nevada (6 electoral votes)
- Michigan (15 electors)
- North Carolina (16 electoral votes)
Pennsylvania, with its 19 electoral votes, was a key state in the last presidential election and will be again in 2024. Trump also needs to win Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin and Nevada, which Biden narrowly won in 2020.
Florida and Ohio were once considered contested states, but have become safe Republican strongholds in recent elections. Nevertheless, the political landscape remains dynamic.
