A top official within the Wisconsin election system has said that results for the swing state could be expected after midnight on Wednesday.
Paulina Gutierrez, executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission, said that the state had fewer obstacles than in 2020 due to the absence of COVID, but that complications remained in the counting process.
The statements came as both Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris ended their campaigns on Monday with final rallies across multiple swing states.
Speaking on CNN, Gutierrez said: "There's always a struggle with the count. In 2020, we counted 168,000 ballots—we have 105,000, so we're nowhere near that size this year, and of course, there was the pandemic, so we had a lot of other stuff to put in place.
"The thing to note is that even if we were to finish counting at a reasonable time, we have a very formal exporting, transportation and uploading process to ensure the safety and security of those results.
"So I just want to assure the American public that it will happen, but it will be some time after midnight. I mean, I hope we won't go past the early morning hours like we did at the pandemic, but it's just the reality of counting on under hundreds of thousands of ballots."
Milwaukee is the largest city in Wisconsin, and has received a high proportion of the state's mail-in ballots.
When Does Vote Counting Begin?
Each state begins counting votes at different times. For some swing states, election officials start counting early voting and mail-in ballots days before Election Day itself to get a head start.
This is the case in states like Michigan, which starts counting over a week before Election Day.
However, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania do not allow officials to begin counting until Election Day itself.
When Will the Results Start Coming In?
According to a memo from the Harris campaign, swing state results will continue to come in throughout the week, as counting could be delayed.
On Tuesday night, results from Georgia and North Carolina are expected, unless the races are extremely close and recounts are needed.
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, most of the results from Michigan and Wisconsin are expected, in line with what Gutierrez said on Monday. Partial results from Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Nevada are also expected.
The rest of the results are expected Wednesday and beyond.
When Will the Result Be Announced?
The election will be called when either Harris or Trump has received 270 Electoral College votes or more. This means that not every state needs to finish counting in order for a winner to be called.
According to Arnon Mishkin who led Fox New's decision desk on election night in 2020, the results could be announced on Saturday, November 9, which is when Pennsylvania is predicted to finish its count.
Pennsylvania was the tipping-point state in 2020, and its announcement led to the election of Biden.
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