US Elections 2020: Time, Date, Results; Where to watch in India

Washington, Oct 02: The United States is all set to choose its 46th president as the state is set for elections on 3 November, the traditional date to cast vote in America.

President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden have left no stone upturned to woo voters amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Unlike India, where the Election Commission announces final results days after various rounds of polling, every US state counts and declares its result once the polling is over.

US Elections 2020: Time and Date in India

Most states will begin polling at 6 am EST (3:30 pm IST November 3). But, the first state to open voting is Vermont at 5 am EST (2:30 pm IST November 3).

Voting closes latest by 9 pm EST (6:30 am IST November 4) in New York and North Dakota. The first polls to close will do so at 7 pm EST (4:30 am IST).

Where to watch:

The US Presidential elections will be telecasted on all major international TV news channels (Wion, BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera English etc)

There are more than 257 million people in the US who are 18 or older, and nearly 240 million citizens are eligible to vote this year. It said that 54 per cent of those 58.7 million votes already cast this cycle comes from 16 most competitively ranked states, which will play a crucial role in determining who wins the presidency this year.

Counting of votes:

End of Voting on November 3 would mean the beginning of what could be a lengthy counting period. These are called the popular votes but they do not directly decide or elect the President of the United States of America but they matter in knowing which way the "electors" of the Electoral College would vote.

What is new this year?

The biggest factor that may slow things down this year is clear: Millions of Americans decided to vote by mail rather than risk contracting coronavirus at a polling place. And in general, those mail ballots take longer to count.

Election workers must remove the ballots from their envelopes, check for errors, sort them and flatten them - all before they can be run through scanners the moment polls close and be tabulated. In states with well-established vote-by-mail programs, this processing happens weeks before Election Day. The results are often released quickly.

But several states did not have this system in place before this year and laws on the books prohibited election officials from processing the ballots well in advance of Election Day. Without a head start, there's virtually no way to process and count all the mail votes on Election Day, while also counting all the in-person votes.

There are three important battlegrounds with restrictions on when the mail vote can be processed - Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

In those states, Republican-controlled legislatures have resisted pleas from election officials to update the laws to allow for a speedier count. (The Michigan legislature did allow processing to begin 24 hours before Election Day in cities, but election officials say that's not enough of a head start.) Instead, they will initially report in-person votes - expected to heavily favor Trump - and gradually update with the more Democratic-leaning mail ballots later.

When can we expect US election 2020 result

Yes, there's never been a presidential race in history in which all votes are counted on election night. It's just not physically possible to instantly count that many ballots possibly as many as 150 million on the night of Nov. 3.

Media organizations, including The Associated Press, declare winners in thousands of races on election night based on the results that are in, voter surveys and other political data.

But in a close race, more of the vote may need to be counted before the AP can call a winner.

Will they announce winner on election night?

Sure. Not all battleground states are slow-counting states. So if several key states release their results promptly, one candidate may have a majority of the electoral vote - even without knowing who won in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania or Michigan.That becomes more likely if the races in those states are not close.

It's a scenario that puts a lot of eyes on Florida. The state allows its election offices to process mail ballots 22 days before the election. It's also the biggest swing state. As long as the race isn't too close - a big "if" in a place famous for tight races - there could be a close-to-complete count by midnight. And if Trump loses Florida, it's is very difficult for him to reach the 270 electoral votes he needs to defeat former Vice President Joe Biden and return to the White House.

Two other Southern battlegrounds - North Carolina and Georgia - also can begin processing mail ballots early. They are both considered critical states for Trump. However, unlike Florida, neither state has a record of handling a large number of mail ballots. It's unclear how quickly they will count those votes.

Finally, two Midwestern states Iowa and Ohio also allow for early processing of mail ballots. Trump won both states handily in 2016, but Democrats believe Biden is competitive there. Results in those two states on election night could give hints about what lies ahead in the critical Rust Belt states that take longer to count.

In Pennsylvania, the mail ballots must arrive by November 6. The pre-election votes will not be processed or counted until November 3. The polls would close at 6.30 am IST. The counties are not required to count mail ballots until after Election Day. Some counties will not count the mail ballots on election night. The counties would vary on order or releasing pre-election and the November 3 results. The counting in Pennsylvania is expected to be completed by November 5.