Harris Vs. Trump: When Will The Winner Be Announced?

In just over a week, we will know who the 47th president of the United States will be. Will it be the sitting Vice President or the former President? Will it be the Democratic nominee or the Republican? Blue or Red? But how long will it take to decide who the winner is?

The current presidential odds favor Donald Trump at -195 moneyline odds, which translates to a 66.10% chance. An upset by Harris is listed at +165 moneyline odds or a 37.74% chance for her to win.

Historically, it hasn’t taken that long to count all of the votes and for the loser to concede. Presidential concessions started in 1896 when President William McKinley waited two days before William Jennings Bryan conceded the election. Bryan sent a telegram to McKinley congratulating him and saying, "We have submitted the issue to the American people and their will is law." Since then, most losing candidates have conceded to the election either on the same evening as the election or the next day. 

For example, in 2012, Republican Mitt Romney conceded to President Barack Obama early the morning after the election. In 2016, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton conceded to former President Donald Trump the day after the election. There have been two notable exceptions to timely concessions. The first was in 2000, followed by the last election in 2020.

The presidential election between then VP Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush took 36 days to decide when the former officially conceded. For those of you too young to remember, Gore and Bush battled all the way to the Supreme Court, which sided with Bush on voting issues with hanging chads on the ballots.

Fast forward to four years ago, in 2020, when then-former VP Joe Biden defeated incumbent President Trump. It took four days for the winner to be called, even though Trump declared himself the winner across social media. Trump has yet to concede to the 2020 election officially.

The 2024 election is on November 5th, 2024. Polling places in battleground states will close between 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern time, depending on your location. Voters in Alaska and Hawaii can, in some places, vote as late as 12 a.m. Eastern time.

Once everything is said and done, the 2024 presidential election will be the closest, and the most voted on in history. That means it will take some time before a winner is determined. That’s not all. Several states are not permitted by law to start processing absentee and mail-in ballots until Election Day, which is expected to slow down the count.

Even after all of the votes have been cast and counted, either candidate can contest the results in court. However, don’t expect the Supreme Court to be interested in litigating another election unless the results are very close.