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    How soon will we know whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump won Pa?
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    How soon will we know whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump won Pa?

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    Millions of voters in Pennsylvania will head to the polls on Election Day to vote for either presidential candidate Kamala Harris or Donald Trump, casting their ballots in multiple rounds of voting simultaneously.

    But you'll have to wait some time before you can know for sure whether Harris or Trump won the Keystone State.

    Expect an official announcement of Pennsylvania's winner here.

    When will you find out if Kamala Harris or Donald Trump won Pennsylvania?

    Polls in Pennsylvania close on Tuesday, November 5th at 8 p.m. However, it may take several days for the Pennsylvania Department of State to verify and certify the votes.

    According to published reports, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt, a former Philadelphia city commissioner tasked with overseeing elections there, confirmed that a final count could not occur until well after Election Day because election officials are prohibited from doing so until the morning after the election to open mail-in ballots.

    “Under state law, mail-in ballots cannot be processed until Election Day, preventing counties from getting a head start on the count,” ABC’s Project 538 says. “However, once they begin counting those ballots, counties are no longer allowed to do so do.” stop until they’re done.

    “According to an analysis by Votebeat and Spotlight PA, many counties should be able to count all of their ballots on election night, but some larger counties could take until Wednesday or Thursday.”

    It took days for Pennsylvania's Biden-Trump winner to be announced

    If this year is anything like the last general election, it could take days for election officials to count all the votes across the country.

    In 2020, the Associated Press did not declare the race for President Joe Biden until the Saturday morning after Election Day.

    And these “calls” are unofficial results until the votes are certified in the days after the count is completed.

    The first unofficial voting results reported after polls close are expected to be released around 8 p.m. on Election Day.

    Results later in the night will be updated regularly by election officials and are expected to be a mix of absentee ballots and votes cast in person on Election Day.

    Once vote counting extends into the next day and beyond, voting results are expected to once again come largely from mail-in ballots.

    Damon C. Williams is a Philadelphia-based journalist covering trending topics in the Mid-Atlantic region.

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