Washington: Polling is underway across the United States to elect the 47th President, and Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are in a tough fight. In the 2024 presidential polls, 51 separate elections, one in every state, and each with its own rules and practices for counting the votes make this election gruelling and fragmented. November 5 “Election Day”, will portray a final picture that could take hours or days to emerge due to the neck-and-neck contest between the two rivals.
The race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump remains extremely tight in seven key swing states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
There is no set national time for voting to begin in the US on November 5. While most states will begin voting at 7 am as per the local time, some might start as early as 5 am or as late as 10 am depending on the time zones. The US follows four main time zones Eastern Time (ET), Central (CT), Mountain (MT), and Pacific Standard Time (PT).
US Elections 2024 Results: When Will We Know Who Has Won?
It’s uncertain how long it will take to announce the final winner this time. A result could be declared on election night, the following morning, or possibly after days or even weeks.
Although, after a winner of a US presidential election is announced, it doesn’t mean the person is officially elected. The candidate isn’t considered the president-elect until the electoral votes are formally cast and counted.
The Electoral College is made up of 538 electors, and a candidate must secure at least 270 electoral votes to win. This is known as the “electoral vote,” and when the citizens cast their vote on Election Day is referred to as the “popular vote.”
In the 2020 election, voting occurred on November 3, but US TV networks didn’t declare Joe Biden the winner until the late morning of November 7. Even then, The Associated Press waited another 10 days to call North Carolina for Trump, and Georgia wasn’t officially decided for Biden until 16 days after the election, following a hand recount.
How President is elected?
The US Presidential candidate must secure a minimum of 270 electoral votes out of a total of 538.One electoral vote is equal to a member of the Congress a particular state has in America.For example, in India, every state has parliamentary seats, a total of which is 543. To win the election, one must secure halfway mark of 272.In the same way, in the United States, each state has a specific electoral vote.US citizens don’t directly vote for Presidential candidates but for members representing major political parties.One member is equal to one electoral vote.So, whichever candidate gets the majority of 270 electoral votes, that particular candidate becomes the president-elect.All electoral votes go to the overall winner of the statewide popular vote, except in two states Maine and Nebraska.In these 2 states, electoral votes are based on the winner of the popular vote in each congressional district and two additional votes go to the winner of the statewide popular vote
To simplify this, one member of the Congress or electoral vote is equivalent to a Member of the Parliament in India.
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