Waiting for a president to be picked is kinda like watching paint dry, but with higher stakes and more yelling on TV. We’ve all been there—staring at those flickering red and blue maps, wondering if we can finally go to sleep. If you’re asking when will the 2024 election results be announced, the answer isn't a single time on a clock. It's more of a rolling wave of data.
Honestly, the "announcement" happens in stages. There’s the media "call" where news desks project a winner, and then there’s the actual, legal certification that makes it official. For the 2024 cycle, things moved surprisingly fast compared to the 2020 slog.
Why "Election Night" is Kinda a Lie
Most of us grew up thinking the winner is declared before the 11 o'clock news ends. That’s rarely how it works anymore. In 2024, the polls closed on November 5, but the counting didn't just stop when the sun went down.
States have wildy different rules. Florida, for example, is like the speed runner of elections. They process mail-in ballots weeks early, so as soon as the polls close, boom—90% of the data drops. Then you have places like Pennsylvania or Wisconsin. Historically, they aren't allowed to even touch a mail-in envelope until the morning of Election Day. That creates what political nerds call the "Red Mirage" or "Blue Shift," where the lead seems to flip-flop as different types of ballots are tallied.
In the 2024 race, we actually got a clear picture much sooner than many expected. While people were braced for a week-long wait like in 2020, the Associated Press and other major networks called the race for Donald Trump in the early morning hours of Wednesday, November 6. Specifically, it was around 5:30 AM ET when the tipping-point state of Wisconsin pushed him over the 270 electoral vote threshold.
The Timeline of the 2024 Call
- 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM ET (Nov 5): The "safe" states for both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump were called almost immediately.
- 12:00 AM – 2:00 AM ET (Nov 6): Focus shifted entirely to the "Blue Wall" and the Sun Belt. When North Carolina and Georgia were called for Trump, the path for Harris narrowed significantly.
- Early Morning (Nov 6): Once Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were called, the math was basically finished. The 2024 election results were effectively "announced" to the world by sunrise on Wednesday.
The Gap Between "Called" and "Official"
Just because CNN or Fox News puts a checkmark next to a name doesn't mean the government is done. The question of when will the 2024 election results be announced officially involves a boring but vital process called certification.
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Each state has its own deadline to verify the numbers. For instance, Georgia had to certify by November 22, 2024. Michigan had until November 25. This period is when they deal with provisional ballots—those "maybe" votes from people whose registration was questioned or who forgot their ID.
Key Legal Milestones
- December 11, 2024: The deadline for states to issue "Certificates of Ascertainment." This is the formal document saying, "Yep, these are the electors we’re sending."
- December 17, 2024: The electors actually met in their respective states to cast their official votes for President and Vice President.
- January 6, 2025: Congress met in a joint session to count those electoral votes. This is the moment the results are technically "announced" to the archives of history.
- January 20, 2025: Inauguration Day. The final step.
Why 2024 Was Faster Than 2020
You might remember 2020 feeling like a never-ending fever dream. It took four days to call that race. Why was 2024 different?
Basically, the volume of mail-in ballots dropped. In 2020, we were in the middle of a pandemic, and everybody was voting by mail. Those take forever to process because you have to check signatures, open envelopes, and flatten the paper. In 2024, more people went back to in-person voting.
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Also, several states updated their laws to allow "pre-processing." This meant election workers could start the tedious work of verifying envelopes before Election Day, even if they couldn't hit the "count" button yet. This shaved hours—and in some cases, days—off the wait time.
What to Do With This Information
If you're looking back at the 2024 timeline to prepare for the next one, or just trying to settle a bet, remember that the "announcement" is a spectrum.
Check the official state archives. If you need the granular, person-by-person vote count, don't rely on a news snippet. Every Secretary of State office posts the "Certified Election Results" on their website. These are the only legally binding numbers.
Understand the "Canvass." If you see numbers changing slightly in the weeks after the election, don't panic. That’s the canvassing process. It’s a standard audit where they double-check the math to ensure every single valid vote is included before the final certification.
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Watch the Electoral College, not just the Popular Vote. Trump won the 2024 election with 312 electoral votes to Harris’s 226. While the popular vote gets a lot of headlines, the electoral count is what actually determines the timing of the announcement.
If you’re researching for historical or legal reasons, your next move should be to visit the National Archives (Archives.gov). They host the official "Certificates of Vote" from every state, which provides the final, unchangeable record of how the 2024 election results were announced and sealed.