No One Has Won the Presidential Election (Yet)

No winner was determined on Election Day in three of the most important states for this year’s presidential contest: Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

That means neither President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden has clinched the election. And there’s a good chance that it will be several days before one of them does.

Wisconsin says there’s no way they are announcing a winner tonight

Michigan needs until Friday

Pennsylvania isn’t coming out anytime soon, either

Per officials in those states

— Saleha Mohsin (@SalehaMohsin) November 4, 2020

This is not an unexpected outcome! In fact, it is exactly the sort of scenario that political scientists and media outlets—including Reason—have been highlighting for months as a serious possibility. Three major factors that combined to delay a result: a large number of absentee ballots, high turnout, and a neck-to-neck race in several swing states.

In Pennsylvania, for example, state law prohibited election officials from even beginning to count the estimated 2 million mail-in ballots until polls closed on Tuesday. Some counties decided to hold off on opening those ballots until Wednesday morning. Unless in-person votes cast on Tuesday gave either Biden or Trump an unexpectedly insurmountable lead, there was never much hope that Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes would be decided on Election Day itself.

Wisconsin is in a similar situation, with state officials forbidden from counting mail-in ballots early, as most other states do. About 1.9 million absentee ballots have been returned in Wisconsin, so unless in-person votes cast on T