U.S presidential election day is almost upon us and it’s safe to say many Australians are awaiting the results with bated breath.
However, thanks to a pesky thing known as timezones, it’s been a little tricky to gauge when exactly we can expect to find out who has won.
Luckily, Matt Bevan, host and writer of ABC‘s US politics podcast America, If You’re Listening, has put together a comprehensive Twitter thread on how the day is likely to go down.
As reported by Bevan, the first states will close at 10 am AEDT, and Georgia and most of Florida will have closed by 11 am.
According to Bevan, Biden is likely to have won the election if he wins the state of Georgia, but the results could potentially take days to count.
Bevan also explained that Biden will have also probably won the election if he wins Florida, which could mean that we know the result by mid-afternoon.
“Trump essentially cannot win the election without Florida. Biden has many ways of winning without Florida, but it’s going to take longer to count,” he said.
By 2 pm, voting in each important swing state will have closed, and counting will begin.
It seems the possibility that Trump may go rogue and declare early victory remains, with Bevan reporting that it will be most likely to happen at around 4 pm.
As Bevan reports, Trump’s team told AXIOS reporter Jonathan Swan that victory will be declared if he appears to be ahead in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Iowa, Arizona and Georgia.
However, Bevan says that if Trump loses any of those states, then we’ll be back in “Biden’s probably going to win territory.”
Bevan says that it is “starting to get more likely” that the result could come down to Pennsylvania, who appear to be notoriously slow at counting votes.
According to Bevan, it could take days or even weeks to receive a definitive result from Pennsylvania.
Thus, if it does indeed come down to the state, we may not get an answer tomorrow.
With so many variables still in play, Bevan recommends to “start paying attention” to the election 24 hours after people did during the Melbourne Cup, i.e approximately 3 pm on Wednesday.
“If you’ve blocked out the day for this, put on the TV at 11 am and leave it there cos it’s going to be quite a ride,” he concluded and we’re already willing to bet he’s right.
Check out Matt Bevan’s Twitter thread on the presidential election results:
Ok the number one question people are asking me (and everyone who follows this) is when on Wednesday are things happening… so here you go – all times are Canberra/Melbourne/Sydney time.
10am – First states close. Indiana and Kentucky. Don’t even look up from your laptop.
— Matt Bevan ? (@MatthewBevan) November 2, 2020