When are election results announced? How it played out in prior presidential elections
The millions of Americans and people around the world anxious to know the outcome of the U.S. presidential election shouldn't expect final results on election night.
In recent decades, Americans have gotten used to the idea that news outlets typically projected a winner in the contest for the White House by the time most went to bed or woke up the morning after casting their vote.
However, election workers have never completed ballot counting on Election Day at any point in the country's history. This year, local and state certification deadlines range from two days after Nov. 5 to more than a month.
The 2000 and 2020 races for the White House saw the longest delays in declaring a winner over the last 25 years. In 2000, a famously close race and legal challenges dragged out the process. In 2020, a rise in mail-in ballots during the COVID pandemic delayed results. This year, state laws in place in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin prohibiting election workers from counting early votes until Election Day could slow down results again.
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Extended poll hours, the neck-and-neck race between former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris and those delays are all expected to matter this year. But remember: Not knowing the results of the election Tuesday night doesn't mean something has gone wrong, or election officials across the country are having trouble tabulating ballots.
Here is a look at when the world knew the results of the last six U.S. presidential elections:
More: Why it might take Pennsylvania and Wisconsin longer to count ballots than other states
When did we know the 2020 presidential result?
The 2020 election between now-President Joe Biden and Trump took place on Nov. 3, 2020, but news outlets did not call the race for Biden until four days later on Nov. 7.
How do news outlets call presidential races before every ballot has been counted in every state? Different outlets have their own approach. The Associated Press, for example, explains that it calls a race when "trailing candidates no longer have a path to victory," relying on researchers and other analysis.
When did we know the 2016 presidential result?
In 2016, the race between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Trump was called for Trump in the early hours of the next morning, shortly before 3 a.m. EST on Nov. 9.
When did we know the 2012 presidential result?
In 2012, former President Barack Obama was projected to win a second term over now-Sen. Mitt Romney before midnight on Election Day, Nov. 6.
When did we know the 2008 presidential result?
Obama also secured a quick victory on Nov. 4, 2008 against Sen. John McCain, with outlets calling the race around 11 p.m. EST after polls closed.
When did we know the 2004 presidential result?
Then-Sen. John Kerry conceded to then-President George W. Bush on a phone call shortly after 11 a.m. the morning after the election, which was held on Nov. 2, 2004.
When did we know the 2000 presidential result?
An outlier in presidential races, the 2000 election between former Vice President Al Gore and then-Texas Gov. George Bush was not decided until Dec. 12, 2000, five weeks after Election Day.
The 2000 election was plagued by a flawed ballot design and allegations of miscounts that led to legal controversies. Gore requested a manual recount of votes in Florida, where the race was notably close. The Florida Supreme Court approved the recount, and the Bush campaign contested the ruling.
The U.S. Supreme Court took up the case and overturned the Florida court's decision and determined in a 5-4 ruling the Gore campaign had run out of time to propose any new recount plans. That ruling, still debated today, resulted in Bush winning the pivotal state by 537 votes.
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: When are presidential election results announced?