Dylon Harrison
Managing Editor
The 2020 presidential election has come and gone, but the results of the election are likely to take some time to be accurately determined. With all of the unprecedented circumstances around this election, it is within the realm of possibility that the decision will be made over an unprecedented amount of time.
With the record-setting amount of absentee and early voters this year, it is expected that the results of the election may not be known until midway through November.
Some experts predict that during the time it will take to count the votes, each of the candidates may appear to take large leads in specific states that will eventually narrow as more ballots are counted.
President Trump is expected to take this early lead in red states that count Election Day Votes first, while Vice President Biden is expected to lead in blue states that count their early ballots first.
While the delay in determining this year’s election results is expected to be longer than normal, counting votes after election day is nothing new. It has been happening in America since our modern voting practices began.
The only things that are expected to set this election apart from those in the past are the record number of expected voters and the number of those voters who are opting to not vote in person at the polls on Election Day.
NPR predicts that it could take until as late as Nov. 12 for election results to be finalized in the final swing state.
It is also expected that, if the election is close, it could make its way to the Supreme Court for the final decision to be made, at which point the final results would take even longer to be decided.
If the decision does not go to the Supreme Court, we should know the results by the end of November. If it does, it is unclear how long it will take for the decision to be made.
As of the writing of this article, President Trump has also refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power in the event that he loses this election. While it is not within the powers of a sitting president to stay in power after losing the election, America has also never had to face the consequences of a president attempting to.
However, none of this means that there will definitely not be a clear-cut winner determined by the end of Election Day if enough states declare their winner that night. President Trump has been pushing for an Election Night decision to be made, so that is not outside the realm of impossibilities.
If enough key states determine the winner of their election by the end of the night, it is entirely conceivable that we could know who the next president will be by the time this article is published.
Either way, officials across the country are urging Americans to keep calm and wait patiently while the results of the election are determined as accurately as possible.
