Once the polls close on Nov. 5, the path to either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump taking the oath of office will still take several more weeks. There is a detailed process in place to ensure the ballots are counted accurately and that state and federal officials properly determine who won the most electoral college votes.
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Here are the key dates that matter for after this Election Day:
November 7: State certification of results begins
Once votes are counted, it’s up to the state election officials to certify that the results are accurate.
The deadlines for states to certify the official vote tallies are staggered. Delaware comes first, and must certify its votes by Nov. 7, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. The key battleground state of Georgia must certify its results by Nov. 23, followed by Michigan on Nov. 25 and North Carolina and Nevada on Nov. 26. Wisconsin’s deadline for certifying electoral college results is Dec. 1, and Arizona is Dec. 2. Pennsylvania and Rhode Island don’t have specified deadlines for certification.
In most states, it’s winner-take-all. That means the state popular vote determines whom all of a state’s electors will ultimately support. (In Nebraska and Maine, some of the electors can be split and are determined by the popular vote in each congressional district.)
The candidate who secures 270 of the state electoral votes — the majority of the total 538 electors in the electoral college — will be named President. But there are a few more steps before that can happen, including having governors formally appoint the winning candidate’s electors.
November 11: Presidential transition briefings must begin
If there is no clear winner projected by Nov. 11, federal agencies are required to begin briefing both the Harris and Trump campaign teams separately on each agency’s most pressing work and the key roles that need to be filled.
When then-President Trump refused to acknowledge Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral win, he obstructed the typical process of an orderly transition between presidencies. Biden’s team was locked out of briefings from critical federal agencies like the Pentagon, the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. To better prepare an incoming President replacing a recalcitrant one, Republicans and Democrats in Congress in 2022 passed the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act. Previously the General Services Administration would ascertain which candidate had likely won before transition briefings began. But now both campaigns will start separate transition planning if neither candidate has conceded within five days from Election Day.
November 26: Trump sentenced in hush money trial
As the official machinery cementing the outcome of the election churns on, it is entirely possible that Donald Trump will have to report to a courtroom in Lower Manhattan for sentencing in his New York hush money trial. In May, a jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up payments he made to a porn star to buy her silence on the eve of the 2016 election.
New York State Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan will decide Trump’s sentence. The sentencing hearing had previously been set for Sept. 18, but Trump lawyers argued that a sentencing so close to the election could unfairly impact the outcome of the race. The conviction carries a possible prison sentence of up to 4 years. But given that Trump’s never been convicted of a crime before, he could receive a lighter sentence or probation. There’s nothing preventing a convicted felon or a person in prison from serving as President of the United States. If Trump becomes President, he would not be able to pardon his New York convictions, because a President doesn’t have power over state charges.
December 11: Ascertainment
Once the states have certified their results, each state’s executive—the governor in most cases—signs “certificates of ascertainment” formally allocating that state’s electors to the winning candidate. These are the pieces of paper that Congress treats as the result. Dec. 11 is the deadline for each state’s governor to sign the certificates.
The individuals named on that piece of paper will be the electors expected to cast the state’s votes in the electoral college. The signed certificates will be paired with the official electoral votes for the state and copies will be sent to Congress and the Archivist of the United States.
A candidate can challenge those certificates in court, but they can only be changed after an expedited judicial review process that is part of the electoral reforms Congress passed in 2022.
December 17: Electors vote
In every state, the electors will meet and cast votes for President and Vice President. Each election cycle, this happens on the first Tuesday after the second Wednesday in December. In 2024, that falls on Dec. 17.
The electors’ votes are recorded and sealed with the certificates of ascertainment signed by the governor and the whole packet is sent to Congress and the National Archives.
December 25: Electoral votes arrive in Washington, D.C.
Many of the procedures in place for formally establishing the results of the nation’s presidential election were designed when important documents were transmitted across the country on horseback—not by plane or email. Same goes for the deadline by which the official electoral votes must arrive in the capital from the states. They must arrive in Washington, D.C. by the fourth Wednesday in December, which this year falls on Christmas Day.
If the electoral votes haven’t arrived by Dec. 25, the president of the Senate or the Archivist can request an extra copy held by the state’s top election officer.
Jan. 3, 2025: House and Senate convene
Every two years, the newly elected House and Senate convene at noon on Jan. 3. If the president of the Senate still has not received a set of electoral certificates by that time, copies can be requested from the Archivist.
For the House of Representatives, its first order of business is electing the Speaker. If the Republicans hold the House, Speaker Mike Johnson will likely retain that gavel. Democrats would likely support House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for Speaker, if they take control of the chamber.
Jan. 6, 2025: Counting the electoral votes
The sitting Vice President—as president of the Senate—has a ceremonial duty to oversee the final step of the Electoral College process at 1 pm on Jan. 6, 2025 during a joint session of the House and Senate. Whether or not she wins the election, that role will be handled by Vice President Harris, who will preside over the ceremony as electoral certificates for each state are counted and tallied and a winner is declared.
After Trump pressured Vice President Mike Pence to try to overturn his 2020 election loss on Jan. 6, 2021, Congress clarified that the vice president’s role in the process is to perform “solely ministerial duties” and has no power to reject electoral votes.
Jan 20, 2025: Inauguration Day
Around noon on Jan. 20, 2025, the President-elect will take the Oath of Office on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. When he was the outgoing President in 2021, Trump did not attend Biden’s inauguration. This time around, Biden intends to attend the ceremony regardless of who wins. “This President believes in the peaceful transfer of power, and that’s what you’re going to see this President do,” spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said.