The United States of America is a land of vast time zones so knowing when to expect any kind of results can be tricky here in Australia.
There are six different times zone across the US and several states have split time zones.
Polling booths start closing from 11am today (Wednesday), Australian Eastern Daylight Time in the eastern US states but not until 3pm on the west coast.
Here’s a compact timeline of votes closing for those election watchers who are interested in some of the key states:
11am: Florida (part of it), New Hampshire and Virginia.
11.30am: North Carolina and Ohio
12pm: Pennsylvania, the other part of Florida
1pm: 10 states shut their booths including Wisconsin, Texas and Colorado
2pm: Nevada and Iowa
3pm: California and Oregon
5pm: Alaska
From 3pm, the election could be called
The closing of the west coast polling booths is the first opportunity for the election to be called. The ABC reports that the television networks generally wait until then to declare a winner. Any earlier call is seen as possibly affecting voter turnout.
The winning number is 270
If you see that number pop up, then whoever’s name it’s under is the winner – 270 is the number of electoral votes needed for a majority.
Some states to watch
Florida: This state has the ability to decide an election, and Clinton and Trump are neck-and neck down there, according to early voting.
Ohio: Part of the “rust belt”, this state has been a Trump one since the start. Trump has to win this state to have a shot at the presidency.
Michigan: It’s looking like Clinton will win this one, but some pollsters are tipping a major upset here.
Colorado: Called one of the most dramatically swinging states in this election, and it’s been a favourite for both candidates to visit.
New Hampshire: It only has a few votes (4 compared to Florida’s 29) but election watchers claim it could be a vital cog in this close election. At last count, Trump was ahead.
A date for the diary – moving day
The Obamas will be hanging around the White House for a while yet. The new president and vice president don’t get the keys until after begin sworn in on January 20, 2017.
