As the most anticipated US election finally began on November 5 (Tuesday), a lot of people are anticipating the result and wondering how the polls will take place. Let’s dive deeper and take a look at the 2024 US election.

At what time the elections will be held?

Election Day is on November 5 2024 at this date the polling takes place across the country. In most of the states, the polling time will be from 7am to 9am (local time). Keeping in mind the multiple time zones the timings would be between 10:00GMT and 15:00GMT.

However, the ending time will vary from state to state. Yet most of the polling will probably close between 7pm and 11pm Eastern Time (00:00-05:00 GMT).

When will the vote counting begin?

In the US, vote counting will begin right after the polling station closes at 7pm Eastern time (00:00 GMT), and then the results will start coming in.

Due to the time difference in some states, the polls will end late, so the outcome will also come late. Meanwhile, the eastern state must have started announcing Harris or Trump as the winner.

What outcome to expect?

As the race is so tight the counting might happen past midnight with no hints on who will become the next president.

“It’s really close,” says Raymond J La Raja, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Who is leading in the national polls?

According to FiveThirtyEight’s National Polls tracker shows Harris maintaining a narrow national lead of about 1.2 points as of Friday.

Raymond J La Raja explains that the polls are not accurate and one cannot trust them. And the results can be surprising for both of the candidates. He says that if the polls are incorrect and the race is not that tight we will get to know the results quickly.

According to Al Jazeera, La Raja said “But my guess is we will not know in the first few days. It’s so close [that a candidate might] not concede… so I would get out the coffee and tea because it’s going to be a long evening that might go into few days.”

What about the swing states?

Swing states hold the key in deciding the result of the US election.

The key states include Pennsylvania (19 electoral votes), North Carolina (16 votes), Georgia (16 votes), Michigan (15 votes), Arizona (11 votes), Wisconsin (10 votes), and Nevada (6 votes), collectively totalling 93 Electoral College votes.

If the candidate wants to win they should acquire 270 out of 538 electoral votes.

Who is ahead in these swing state polls?

As of now, there is no definite answer on who is ahead in the swing state polls because the polls in these states are neck to neck.

In Michigan, election counting starts earlier and officials process mail ballots before the actual Election Day, though there is no clear time for the result announcement.

In Arizona, mail ballots start processing as soon as they arrive, with initial results expected one hour after the polls close.

In Wisconsin, the workers can’t start processing ballots until Election Day which can lead to late results similar to Pennsylvania.

According to CNN, Wisconsin results may not be available until Wednesday.