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When can you expect results from the 2024 presidential election to start flowing in?
Polls close at 7 p.m. Tuesday, and results will begin populating in the first half-hour and be updated live as counted votes roll in.
As votes are tallied, results will appear on NBC Chicago's live election results page on the website and the app.
As votes are tallied, results will appear on NBC Chicago's live election results page on the website and the app. Polls close at 7 p.m. Tuesday, and results will begin populating in the first half-hour and be updated live as counted votes roll in.
To track live Illinois election results Tuesday from around the state, bookmark this page on NBCChicago.com and the NBC Chicago app.
CLICK HERE FOR LIVE ELECTION RESULTS
Voters looking for real-time election updates can download the NBC Chicago app for push notifications on called races and big moments.
But even though results will flow in shortly after polls close on Election Day, that doesn't mean the presidential race will be called right away.
Experts have warned that official calls may take time, however.
"This is going to be Election Week, not Election Day," said Democratic strategist Peter Giangreco.
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That's because of laws in key swing states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, where clerks are unable to process mail-in ballots prior to Election Day. In 2020, those states were decided by approximately 20,000 and 80,000 votes, respectively.
“In other states, they can open them up, they can verify them. They can flatten them out, so all they have to do is run them through the scanners. In Pennsylvania, they can't even touch them," Giangreco said. "So, we're probably looking at Friday or Saturday before we know Pennsylvania.”
The answer hinges largely on one detail.
"The final results are going to be months, because they have to be audited and they have to be canvassed and they have to be signed off on. But when will the American public know who they can confidently think is going to be our next president? That all depends on the margin, right?" Noah Praetz, president of The Elections Group and previous director of elections for Cook County, told NBC Chicago. "But I'll tell you this, my sense is that most of the swing states are going to be able to have counted preliminarily at least all of their ballots, certainly by midday Wednesday. Arizona is a bit of a outlier, but they rely a lot more on mail balloting and those things just take a little bit longer than doing volume. So I think Wednesday would be a good time to have a sense of things."
Experts say the gap between the candidates will play a major factor in when results are called and what happens in the day after the election.
Delays aren't unheard of in a presidential race, however, according to Dr. Kevin Boyle, chair of the history department for Northwestern University.
“There are a lot of stories of presidential candidates just going to bed not knowing whether they had won the presidency or not," Boyle said.
In 2020, it took four days before President Joe Biden was officially called the winner. In 2000, results hinged on just 537 votes in Florida, with networks calling the state for Al Gore, then George Bush before ruling the race "too close to call."
