US Election 2016: A Blow-by-blow Account

US State House      Photo: Getty Images

Americans go to the polls on 8 November to elect the 45th US president. Here’s what to watch out for as election night unfolds. All 50 states and Washington DC will go to the polls across six different time zones on election day.

But
it’s not just winning the popular vote that counts. The US’s
complicated system is a race to secure 270 out of the 538 votes in the
electoral college. 

Most of the US will have to wait for polling
stations to close – typically between 19:00 EST (24:00 GMT) and 20:00
EST (01:00 GMT) – for state projections.

However, one village,
Dixville Notch in New Hampshire, has a tradition of middle-of-the-night
voting and will have declared its result before the polls even open
everywhere else, at 00:01 EST (05:01 GMT). 

Here’s what’s likely
to happen, based on when polls close, with the caveat that all times are
subject to change if it’s too close to call.

The BBC relies on
projections by its US-based partner broadcaster ABC, because it can take
days for all the ballots to be counted.

As for the final result?
Stay glued to your phone or TV or set your alarm for 23:00 EST (04:00
GMT). That’s when West Coast polls close and history suggests a winner’s
declared. It was bang on the hour in 2008, and 15 minutes later in
2012. 

The
pressure is always on the main American TV networks to be the first to
“call” the result of a presidential election, before all of the votes
have been counted – a process that can take days.

But there is even more pressure on them to get that announcement right.

Nobody
wants a repeat of the 2000 election, when the networks had to withdraw
their projected result for Florida after prematurely declaring George W
Bush the next president.

The networks have “decision desks”,
groups of statisticians who are kept away from the main news room, and
whose job it is come up with state-by-state projections.

The BBC
is using projections from experts at ABC News – its US broadcast partner
– for the presidential race. For the House, Senate and governor races,
it will use the Associated Press news agency, which gathers voting data
from state and local officials. 

Many other networks use AP and
Edison Research, which carries out exit polls. The BBC is not conducting
its own exit poll, as it would at a UK general election. 

Unlike
most of the US networks, the BBC will not be “calling” the result of the
election. It will be reporting the projections from the ABC results
team, which are made based on expert analysis before all the votes have
been counted.

Americans
are also voting for 34 of the US Senate’s 100 seats and all 435 seats
in the House of Representatives. Democrats need four seats to regain
control of the Senate and 30 seats to regain control of the House.

Twelve governorship seats are also up for grabs.

The
president-elect won’t actually become the 45th president of the United
States until 20 January, which is Inauguration Day. This is explicitly
laid out in the US constitution. The president-elect will place his or
her hand on the bible and take the Oath of Office at noon. From then,
the government is in their hands.

So is the White House. Usually,
the sitting president and their spouse host the incoming-First Couple
for tea before the ceremony. 

About six hours later, the new First Family
moves in.

Source: BBC