When Were Election Results Announced 2020: The Longest Week in American Politics

Waiting. That was basically the entire vibe of November 2020. You probably remember sitting on your couch, staring at John King’s "Magic Wall" on CNN or Steve Kornacki’s khakis on MSNBC, wondering if the map would ever actually turn a solid color. It felt like an eternity. If you are looking for a quick date, the answer is November 7, 2020. But the question of when were election results announced 2020 is actually way more complicated than a single calendar square because of how the votes drifted in from different states at different speeds.

It wasn't like 2016. In 2016, we knew by roughly 2:30 AM ET on Wednesday morning. In 2020, Tuesday night came and went with no winner. Wednesday was a blur of "too close to call" banners. Thursday and Friday were spent obsessing over "dumps" of data from Maricopa County and Allegheny County. By the time the major networks finally made the call on Saturday morning, the country was exhausted.

Why it took four days to get an answer

The delay wasn't some grand conspiracy, though plenty of people tried to claim it was. It was logistics. Pure, boring, bureaucratic logistics. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a massive number of Americans—about 65 million—voted by mail.

Here is the kicker: different states have different rules for when they can start processing those mail-in envelopes. In states like Florida or Ohio, officials are allowed to start opening and verifying those ballots weeks before the election. That is why we knew Florida’s result relatively early on Tuesday night. But in "Blue Wall" states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, state legislatures had passed laws that forbade election workers from even touching those envelopes until the morning of Election Day.

Imagine having millions of letters to open, verify, and scan, and you aren't allowed to start until 7:00 AM on Tuesday. You're going to be there a while.

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The Red Mirage and the Blue Shift

This logistical quirk created what political scientists call the "Red Mirage." Since Republicans were more likely to vote in person on Tuesday and Democrats were more likely to use mail-in ballots, the early returns showed Donald Trump with massive leads in places like Pennsylvania. As the week went on and the "mail-in" mountain was slowly chipped away, Joe Biden’s numbers began to climb. Honestly, it looked weird if you didn't understand the order of counting, but it was exactly what data experts like Nate Silver and Dave Wasserman had been predicting for months.

The Saturday Morning Breakthrough

The dam finally broke on Saturday, November 7. Around 11:25 AM ET, the Associated Press and CNN called Pennsylvania for Joe Biden. Since Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes put him over the 270 threshold, he became the President-elect. Other networks followed suit within minutes.

I remember the footage of people pouring into the streets in Philly and DC. It was a weirdly sunny day for November. But even then, the "announcement" wasn't technically official. In the U.S., the media "calls" the election based on statistical certainty, but the actual legal certification takes weeks.

• November 3: Election Day (No winner).
• November 4: Biden flips Wisconsin and Michigan.
• November 6: Biden takes the lead in Pennsylvania and Georgia early in the morning.
• November 7: Major networks call the race.

Georgia and the Perpetual Recount

Even after the national announcement, Georgia was a whole different beast. The margin there was so razor-thin—roughly 12,000 votes out of 5 million cast—that it triggered an automatic hand recount. We didn't get a "final-final" confirmation on Georgia until nearly two weeks later.

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Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, faced immense pressure but ultimately certified the results on November 20. It was a grueling process that proved the systems actually worked, even if they were slow. The reality is that "Election Day" has effectively turned into "Election Month" in the modern era.

The Certification Drama

Usually, the period between the announcement and the inauguration is just a formality. Not in 2020. We had the December 14 Electoral College meeting where electors actually cast their votes in state capitals. Then, of course, the January 6 joint session of Congress.

Most people ask when were election results announced 2020 because they want to remember that moment of clarity on the couch. But for the people working in the basement of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, the "announcement" was the result of 100+ hours of non-stop scanning and signature verification.

What most people get wrong about the call

There is a common myth that the "media" decides who the president is. They don't. The media outlets have "Decision Desks" filled with nerds and statisticians who look at the "expected vote remaining." When the number of uncounted ballots in a specific area (like a heavily Democratic city) is larger than the margin of the lead, and there aren't enough Republican-leaning ballots left to bridge the gap, they call it. It's math, not a decree.

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In 2020, the Decision Desks were extra cautious. They knew the stakes. They waited until Biden's lead in Pennsylvania was outside the range of a mandatory recount before they flashed that "Breaking News" graphic.

How to prepare for future election cycles

If you're looking back at 2020 to understand what might happen in the future, the biggest takeaway is patience. The "announcement" is rarely a single moment anymore.

To stay informed without losing your mind, you've got to look at the "Source of the Vote." If a state says "90% reporting," you need to ask which 10% is missing. Is it a rural county or a major metro area? In 2020, the missing 10% was almost always the big cities and the mail-in pile, which is why the lead kept shifting.

Actionable Insights for Following Election Results:

1. Follow the Secretary of State websites directly. Skip the cable news commentary and go to the official dashboards for real-time raw numbers.
2. Understand "Trigger" laws. Check if a state has a mandatory recount law (usually if the margin is under 0.5%). If it's that close, ignore any "calls" for at least a week.
3. Distinguish between "Processed" and "Counted." Some states count mail-in ballots as they arrive; others wait. Knowing the state's rules tells you if you'll get an early or late night.
4. Ignore the "Exit Polls." They were notoriously unreliable in 2020 because they couldn't accurately capture the massive shift in mail-in voting behavior.

The 2020 election results weren't "late." They were just thorough. In a system where every legal vote must be counted, and millions of those votes are on paper and sent through the mail, the four-day wait was actually a sign of the system's integrity, not its failure. We just weren't used to waiting that long for the TV to tell us what happened.