When will the US election results come?
Because of the massive amount of early voting this year, as well as Trump and the Republican party’s concerted efforts to raise unfounded doubts about certain kinds of ballots, most expect the results to take longer than they normally do.
The first votes of the day, from Dixville Notch in New Hampshire, a precinct that votes at midnight, are already in.
But actual numbers will only begin coming in much later on Tuesday in the US (early morning Wednesday in India), starting at 6 pm ET, which is 11 pm GMT and 4:30 am in IST, Indian Standard Time.
At 7 pm ET (midnight GMT, 5:30 am IST) , an hour later, polls close in Florida and more vote counts will start to stream in from there as well as elsewhere on the East Coast.
At 8 pm ET (1 am GMT, 6:30 am IST) counting will begin in Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state, though most expect final results to take much longer there because of the massive number of mail-in ballots in play this time.
By 10 pm ET (3 am GMT, 8:30 am IST) results will be streaming in from Texas, Michigan, Arizona, among the main swing states, and many others. In normal years, by this time it is starting to become quite clear what the shape of the electoral college may look like, though of course this year may be considerably different.
By 11 pm ET (4 am GMT, 9:30 am IST) polls will close in the Western states of California, Oregon and Washington, bringing us much closer to the time when races are usually called, though the Trump-Clinton race was called much later in the early hours of the morning, ET.
Indian-Americans and India
This election is of particular interest to Indians and Indian-Americans for a several reasons.
One, the winner will have to chart out how to approach a rising, aggressive China, a challenge that has many potential consequences for India.
Two, an Indian-American is in the race for the first time, with Kamala Harris – whose mother migrated to the US from India in the 1950s – contesting as the vice-presidential candidate for the Democrats. If her ticket does win, Harris will be expected by many to run for president as the Democratic candidate in four years time.
