Washington: The outcome of the 2024 US presidential election could be known as early as Wednesday morning, just a few hours after the polling ends on Tuesday. Or it could take days, weeks, and, as it happened in one instance, a month.

More than 78 million American voters had already cast their ballot by Monday morning, on the eve of Election Day as Vice-President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump crisscrossed the seven battleground states with their closing remarks.

In 2016, voting closed on November 8 evening and it was all over by 2:30 a.m. on November 9 with Trump winning battleground state Wisconsin and its 10 electoral college votes to cross the magic number of 270 electoral college votes. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had called to congratulate him five minutes later.

But it may take longer. In 2020, polling was over on November 3 evening but President Joe Biden had to wait until November 7 for Pennsylvania to hand him its 19 electoral college votes and the presidency. The record for the most delayed result could go to the 2000 election when the country waited for more than a month to find its next President, George W Bush — voting ended on November 7 and the state’s outcome was known on December 12.

The US presidential election, it must be remembered, is settled not by the national vote total but by the electoral college votes won. Harris and Trump must win at least 270 of the 538 electoral college votes to win. Each state is assigned several electoral college votes which is the aggregate of the number of members it sends to the US House of Representatives and the Senate; the Senate count is the same for every state, two each.

The closing time for polling can vary from state to state and even from county to county within the state and sometimes even city by city in the same county. If polling closes at 8, whoever is in the line then will cast their vote, no matter how long it takes.

Early voting is currently underway with more than 55 million registered voters having already cast their ballot, either in person at a polling station or by postal ballot.