When will we know the next US President? Here's how the timeline works - and if it's worth staying up

Both candidates have had the momentum behind them at different points since President Joe Biden announced he’d not be seeking a second term, but neither have been able to open up a significant lead.

In order to win, one of them will need to reach a majority of 270 electoral college votes out of the 538 available (535 electors from the 50 states and three from the federal District of Columbia).

And to get to that magic number they’ll need to win the popular vote in as many states as possible - particularly in the so-called ‘swing states’ where both parties attract almost equal support.

Here’s when we’ll know in the UK who will become arguably the most powerful person in the world.

11pm

This is when the first polls close, but not in any of the battleground states. The states that declare earliest are the areas of America that always vote for a particular party so the only point of interest will be the margin of victory.

It’s also around this time that the first results of the exit polls are known. Unlike in the UK though, they don’t give much of an insight into who will eventually win, but rather indicate the issues which have influenced voters the most.

As the first results start coming in it may look like Trump is running away with the contest, winning the majority of the early electoral college votes. That’s what happens every US election though, with safe Republican states returning first.

Midnight

Here’s where things start getting interesting, with polls closing in the first of the swing states - Georgia. Of course this isn’t when we will know the actual result, with counting taking some time. There is a chance, however, that the result could be ‘called’ within a couple of hours - that’s when experts at major news channels decide that one candidate is so far ahead that they cannot be beaten. In any event, the Georgia result should be known by the end of election day, which is 5am in the UK.

North Carolina’s polls then close half an hour later, at 12.30am UK time.

1am

This is the big one - polls close in Pensylvania, which many agree could be the key to the White House. Under state law postal votes can’t start to be counted until the morning of the election itself though, so the result may be delayed for a few hours.

2am

Voting concludes in Michigan and Wisconsin at 2am, with results expected by around 5am at the earliest. This is also when the final results of some of the smaller states will come though, although non are key indicators of the ultimate victor.

3am

This is when we should have a decent indication of how the candidates have done in Arizona although, again, if it’s close there could be a fair wait. In the swing state of Nevada it could take days to find out who has won, with mail-in ballots qualifying as long as they were posted by election day and arrive by November 9.

5am

This is the earliest that the result of the election is likely to be known - it was at this time that the election was ‘called’ for Barack Obama’s second victory in 2012.

8am

If you’re not staying up then there’s a decent chance you might find out who’s won shortly after waking up. It was at 8am UK time that Donald Trump’s victory was confirmed in 2016.

Later in the week

If the election is as close as some predict then there could be a long delay before the winner is officially known. At the last election it began to look highly likely that Joe Biden would win, but it didn’t become official until the Saturday after the election.

Next month

Then there was the notorious election of 2000, when the November 7 contest between George W Bush and Al Gore was dragged out until December 12, only being decided by a US Supreme Court vote to end the glacial Florida recount process, favouring Bush.