Elizabeth Melimopoulos writes for Al Jazeera English explaining how the US election results are being tallied today, how they could unfold, and the likely timeline. Here are 10 questions and answers to explain the process:

1- When does voting start?

Polling stations will be open between 07:00 and 09:00 a.m. local time. Given the multiple time zones in the United States, this will be between 10:00 and 15:00 GMT.

2- When does the voting end?

Voting deadlines vary from state to state, and sometimes from county to county.

3- When does counting of votes begin, and when can we expect the results?

Just hours after the first polls close at 19:00 ET (00:00 GMT), results are expected to start coming in. However, some states will be counting votes more quickly than others. With polls ending several hours later in Western states than in Eastern states, their first results will only start coming in later, when some Eastern states have already declared their results for Harris or Trump.

In a tight race between them, the counting could continue after election night, and we may not know the winner for days.

“The competition is really intense,” says Raymond J. Larraga, a professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

According to the 538 National Poll Tracker, Harris has maintained a narrow national lead of about 1.2 points since Friday.

However, Larraga explained that the polls may not accurately capture some groups of voters, which could lead to surprising results for either candidate. “If the polls are wrong and the race is not as tight as expected, we will know very quickly, but my guess is we won’t know in the first few days,” he added.

"The gap is so narrow that the losing candidate may not even concede. So I'm going to get out enough coffee and tea, because it's going to be a long evening, and it may take a few days for the final results to come in," he added.

4- What do we know about the swing states?

Seven swing states are expected to be key in determining the outcome of the presidential race.

These key states include Pennsylvania (19 electoral votes), North Carolina (16), Georgia (16), Michigan (15), Arizona (11), Wisconsin (10), and Nevada (6), for a total of 93 Electoral College votes.

A candidate needs at least 270 of the 538 electoral votes to win the election.

Voting in these states will end between 19:00 and 22:00 Eastern Time (00:00 to 03:00 GMT).

Some of the first results are likely to come from Georgia, where state law requires all early votes to be counted and reported by 8 p.m. ET (01:00 GMT) on election night.

Next up is North Carolina. In this case, votes will be counted and reported throughout the evening, with full results expected by midnight (04:00 GMT).

5- In Nevada and Pennsylvania, results may appear after days.

In 2020, Nevada was slow, with the state’s results not being announced until five days after Election Day. The rules have since changed, and the process is expected to move faster this time. However, the results may not be known on Election Night. The state allows late mail-in ballots, so it could be days before we know the final results.

Pennsylvania, a key battleground state, did not have a clear winner in 2020 for four days after Election Day. The state is one of the few that does not allow election workers to start counting mail-in ballots until Election Day, meaning it could be several days before results are known.

6- In Michigan and Arizona, results will appear quickly.

In Michigan, the count may be faster than in previous elections, as officials are now allowed to begin counting mail-in ballots before Election Day, but we don't yet have a clear timeline for when the state's results will be announced.

In Arizona, officials can begin counting mail-in ballots as soon as they are received. The first results are expected to be reported around 22:00 ET (03:00 GMT), one hour after polls close.

Finally, in Wisconsin, poll workers can't start counting ballots until Election Day, meaning there could also be delays, similar to Pennsylvania. Results aren't likely to be in until Wednesday, CNN reported.

7- What happens if there is a tie?

If there is a 269-269 tie or a third-party candidate wins electoral votes, preventing any candidate from reaching 270 votes, the next step is known as a "contingent election."

A contingent election is the process that occurs when the U.S. House of Representatives decides who wins. Each state's delegation in the House of Representatives casts one vote, and a candidate must receive a majority of the votes of the state's delegation to win.

The Senate then chooses the Vice President, with each senator casting one vote and a simple majority (51 votes) required to win.

8- Emergency elections

There have been three emergency elections in the United States, in 1801, 1825 and 1837. The closest in recent years was the 2000 presidential election, when George W. Bush won 271 electoral votes—just one more than he needed—after a controversial recount in Florida. Outgoing Vice President Al Gore had 266 electoral votes.

9- Is there any concern about a possible delay this year?

If the results are delayed, “it certainly increases the sense of fraud and illegitimacy,” La Raja said, “and the longer we wait, the more people will start saying, ‘What’s going on behind those closed doors? How are they counting the ballots? Who is lying?’”

According to him, it is better to hold highly competitive elections and reach the "final result quickly."

These fears and doubts arose in 2021, when thousands of then-President Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol, attempting to overturn his 2020 election loss and force lawmakers to flee for their own safety after he told his supporters to “fight like hell.”

10- What happened in previous years?

In the last election in 2020, the results were announced 4 days after the election on November 3, once the Pennsylvania results were confirmed. In the previous election in 2016, Hillary Clinton conceded to Donald Trump the morning after the election.

In the 2020 election, some states experienced what is known as a “red mirage,” the color of Republicans, where Trump appeared to be leading when the initial votes were counted on election night. Then, a shift to blue—the color of Democrats—happened as additional mail-in votes were counted, and President Joe Biden took the lead.