U.S. Election 2024

No. Americans do cast a vote for their preferred candidate for president, but they don’t directly elect that person. Instead, they’re essentially choosing a slate of electors pledged to a particular candidate. These electors make up the electoral college.

The electoral college was established in the U.S. Constitution in 1787. It’s the process by which the U.S. president is elected. There are 538 electors in the electoral college, divided among each state as well as the District of Columbia. Each elector represents one electoral college vote. The electors vote based on the results of the popular vote in their respective states or districts. Each state and district is assigned a number of electoral college votes ranging from 54 in California to three in Alaska. Read more.

Each presidential candidate has a slate of electors chosen by the candidate’s party in each state.

When a candidate wins a state, all of its electors are then appointed as the official state electors. The exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, where electors are also assigned by district — so those states’ electors may be split among candidates.

Electors are allocated based on the number of people each state has in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate. The number of electors for each state ranges from 54 in California, to the minimum three in several states. D.C., while not a state, is allocated three electors.

A candidate needs to get 270 or more electoral college votes to win the presidency.

Election results will likely land in three waves. Expect the first thorough, swing-state reporting from Georgia and North Carolina, where polls close at 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. local time, respectively, and where laws aid the quick counting of mailed ballots. Unless it's exceptionally close, we should have winners projected within a few hours. If either candidate wins both states, they're strongly favoured to become the next president. Florida and Virginia may also prove instructive: while they aren't likely swing states, they report quickly and could hint at the national trend. The second wave of results will trickle in overnight. Watch for Pennsylvania. Most Pennsylvania counties must, by law, report by 12:01 a.m. local time on how many mail ballots remain uncounted; this could help project a winner there. But because the state has rules that delay processing of mail-in votes, full reporting could take days. If either candidate takes Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina, victory is virtually guaranteed. In Wisconsin, existing laws likely mean a slow count; officials can't process mail-in ballots until election day, and there's a shortage of tabulating machines in Milwaukee, so returns aren't expected until the wee hours. A third wave of results could take days. Michigan and Wisconsin expect their tally some time Wednesday. Finally, the western swing states, Arizona and Nevada, have their own unique situation: it might be possible to surmise the winner there on election night, but both states have laws favourable to mail-in voting, allowing ballots to arrive days after the election and still be counted. If it's a close race, this could delay a call there for days. Read more.

Yes. The determining factor is the electoral college, so a candidate can get 270 or more electoral college votes despite losing the popular vote. In fact, it’s happened five times over 59 presidential elections. Democratic presidential candidates Al Gore in 2000 and Hillary Clinton 2016 both won the popular vote but came out on the losing end of the electoral college.

The U.S. Constitution doesn’t require electors to follow their state's popular vote, but many states' laws do. Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have laws that require presidential electors to back their states' popular vote winner in the electoral college.

There were seven so-called faithless electors in 2016 and none in 2020. Some states void the votes of renegade electors and replace them with the winning candidate, but not all of them do. If it's a razor-thin election, faithless electors in any of those states could have a huge impact.

If no candidate reaches 270 electoral votes, the House of Representatives and Senate determine the occupants of the White House.

In the House, each state delegation gets one vote for president, whether it's a state with a larger population like California or a smaller one like Wyoming. Individual senators, meanwhile, vote on who will be vice-president. Theoretically, the two chambers could vote for a president and vice-president from opposing parties.

If the House of Representatives fails to elect a president by Inauguration Day, the vice-president-elect serves as acting president.

In the event of a 25-25 tie in the House votes and a tie in the Senate, the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 states that, at least temporarily, the Speaker of the House becomes president. That said, the chambers are instructed to keep voting until ties are broken.

Local counties and boards in most states must certify their results within two weeks after the Nov. 5 election. The electoral college voters then meet in their respective states on Dec. 17 to cast their votes for president and vice-president on separate ballots. Federal officials then need to receive the certificates from each state confirming how the electors voted by Dec. 25.

After the electors cast their ballots, they are sent to Washington, D.C., where they will be counted in Congress on Jan. 6, 2025. The results are announced that day, with the president being inaugurated on Jan. 20.

Yes, but a candidate must challenge the results of a particular state or the District of Columbia — according to its respective laws and deadlines regarding such a challenge — as opposed to legally contesting the overall result. How long the process takes depends on the state and can range from days to weeks. Each state also has its own laws regarding recounts, which can include automatic recounts depending on the margin of victory or requiring a petition from a candidate.

If approved, challenges could proceed through the courts all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. This was the case in 2000, when Democratic nominee Al Gore challenged the results in Florida. The Supreme Court’s ruling ultimately allowed Republican candidate George W. Bush to secure the state’s electoral votes and become president.

After the 2020 election, Donald Trump’s campaign filed dozens of lawsuits contesting election processes in several states, but the courts didn’t find merit in their claims.

Some states have also altered their laws since 2020, when a small number of county-level officials across the U.S. objected to particular results and refused to certify them. Any such disputes are meant to be handled by the relevant state election bodies.

The electors meet in their respective states, as well as in D.C., on Dec. 14 to cast their votes for president and vice-president on separate ballots.

After the electors cast their ballots, they are sent to Washington, D.C., where they will be counted in Congress on Jan. 6, 2025. The results are announced that day, with Inauguration Day following on Jan. 20.

The electoral college votes from each jurisdiction will be counted in Congress on Jan. 6.

The count and winner are announced by the president of the Senate, a role held by the vice-president. This means Kamala Harris will likely announce the results, certifying her own victory or defeat as a presidential candidate. George H.W. Bush in 1989 and Al Gore in 2001 also announced the results of the presidential races they competed in.

While Donald Trump wanted his vice-president Mike Pence to reject elector results four years ago, the federal Electoral Count Reform Act was updated in 2022 to indicate that the vice-president's role is "ministerial" and does not include "power to solely determine, accept, reject, or otherwise adjudicate or resolve disputes over the proper list of electors, the validity of electors, or the votes of electors."