The nail-biting United States presidential election is set to take place on November 5, however, the winner of the race between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump may not be known for days after the polls end.
Based on early returns as the ballot votes are counted, one candidate may appear to be leading, only for a rival to close the gap as more votes are counted.
Back in 2020, the early trend had shown Trump leading on election night, however, there was a 'blue wave' later paving the way for the Democrat Joe Biden to overtake him. Here is where the swing states matter.
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Reportedly, Democrats live in more populous urban areas making the counting process longer. Also, after Trump's false claims on mail ballots, Democrats embraced mail voting more readily, making the counting even more time-consuming.
The counting of mail votes takes longer than the counting of Election Day votes.
The seven swing states have their own rules for handling and counting ballots as well.
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How's the voting pattern in the swing states?
Arizona
Nearly 90 per cent of voters cast their ballots early and voting by mail is very popular in the state. Though officials can begin processing the mail ballots, including verifying the signatures and so on upon receipt, the results cannot be released until one hour after polls close.
Also, any mail ballots dropped off on Election Day itself cannot be processed until the polls have closed. The late-arriving ballot votes could overturn the expected results.
Georgia
In Georgia, early in-person voting is quite popular. The mail ballots, around 5 per cent of the vote, can be processed, however, the counting would begin only on Election Day.
According to the state law, all early votes--in-person and by mail--must be counted and reported by 8 pm on election night.
Ballots from overseas and military voters will be accepted up to three days after the election if postmarked by November 5, reported Reuters.
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Michigan
Michigan introduced early in-person voting for the first time and began permitting jurisdictions with more than 5,000 people to begin processing the mail ballots eight days before Election Day.
Nevada
In 2020, Nevada had a slow vote counting. Mail voting has become quite popular in the state and it is the only battleground that accepts late-arriving mail ballots.
Any ballot votes, postmarked by November 5, arriving within four days will still be counted. The late ballots tend to favour the Democrats, so a shift toward Harris could be witnessed as votes are counted after Election Day.
North Carolina
Both mail and in-person voting in popular in the state. Full results are expected by midnight. If the election is as close as polls suggest, the outcome in North Carolina may remain unclear for a week or more.
In 2020, Trump’s win in North Carolina was declared after 10 days of the election.
Pennsylvania
In 2020, the most important battleground state did not have a clear winner for four days after Election Day. There was a huge backlog of mail ballots back then.
Unlike other states, here the officials are not permitted to process mail ballots until 7 am ET on Election Day, further delaying the result.
Wisconsin
Similar to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin also does not officials to process or count mail ballots until the morning of the election. Also, many of the state's largest cities transport mail ballots to a centralised location for processing and tabulating. It can lead to significant batches of votes getting reported all at once in the early morning after polls close, reported Reuters.