The 2024 presidential race will be a historic contest between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, with approximately 160 million Americans expected to vote through various methods including early voting and Election Day balloting on November 5, 2024.
Seven battleground states will likely determine the outcome:
Pennsylvania (19 electoral votes)
Michigan
Wisconsin
Arizona
Nevada
North Carolina
Georgia
The path to victory requires 270 electoral votes out of the total 538. While either candidate can win without Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes, the state is considered crucial and was decisive in both 2016 and 2020.
Key dates in the election process:
November 5, 2024: Election Day
December 11, 2024: Deadline for states to certify results
December 17, 2024: Electoral College votes
January 6, 2025: Congress counts electoral votes
January 20, 2025: Inauguration Day
Important voting and counting factors:
Most ballots will be paper-based and machine-counted
17 states plus DC allow mail ballots to arrive after Election Day
Final results may not be known on election night, especially in close races
Recounts, while possible, historically change vote totals by only 0.03% on average
The winner will likely not be declared until well after polls close on the East Coast, following recent trends. The 2020 election wasn’t called until the Saturday following Election Day, while the 2016 result wasn’t announced until 2:29 a.m. ET the day after the election.