Donald Trumps false claim to have won the US presidential election and also his allegations fraud while millions of votes remain to be counted has focused the spotlight once more on one of the big uncertainties of the 2020 race: when will we know the result?
It could take days, weeks or even months, depending on what happens.
What usually happens?
US presidential elections are not won by the national popular vote. The winner in each state collects its electoral college votes – and needs a total of 270 to take the White House.
You can follow the results here:
In most elections the result is clear – although not officially confirmed – by the end of the night. Major American media outlets call each state for one of the candidates based on their estimation of the count data. While not based on the final vote count results, that projection is almost invariably accurate.
(Note: The Irish Times is working with AP for its results data).
This means an accurate tally of electoral college votes can be made and a winner declared before the count is actually finished. In 2016, that happened at 2.30am in Washington when Trump reached the required 270.
Why is that not happening this time?
Mainly because of the Covid-19 pandemic, large numbers of voters – about 68 per cent of the total, compared with 34 per cent in 2016 – cast their ballots early, including by post.
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