When can voters find out who will be the next US president?

When election night arrives, all eyes will be on the results, but in a close election it could take days before a projection is made.

In 2020, Joe Biden was not declared the winner of the presidential race until the Saturday after the election. In 2016 it wasn’t nearly as close. Donald Trump was declared the winner early Wednesday morning. The call came even earlier in 2012. President Barack Obama won his re-election contest before midnight on Election Day.

Pennsylvania, with 19 electoral votes, could be a state that decides the 2024 presidential election.

Lamont McClure, an election official in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, cautioned that the immediate election results are unofficial, telling Scripps News that they plan to have all votes out by 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. from Election Day.

If the rest of Pennsylvania sticks to that timeline, it may be possible to predict who will win the state by early Wednesday morning. Whether Pennsylvania is the state that tips the balance in one candidate’s favor, however, will depend on how they do in the other battleground states.

There are seven battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona.

In 2016, six out of seven states voted for Donald Trump. In 2020, six out of seven states voted for Joe Biden.

Each state has different rules for how and when ballots are counted. In Florida, for example, election officials have already tabulated ballots that early voters have already returned. In Pennsylvania, officials must wait until Tuesday before they can even open ballots. In Georgia, all early votes must be counted and reported by 8 p.m. on election night.

Rachael Dean Wilson, director of the Alliance Defending Democracy, does not expect quick results.

“The likely margins of this race are going to be so tight,” she said. “It could still be a few days before we know who won the election.”