US election 2024: Key facts, dates as Donald Trump and Kamala Harris vie for White House

The United States is preparing for a historic showdown on November 5, as voters cast their ballots in a high-stakes election. The race pits former President Donald Trump against Vice President Kamala Harris, each vying to lead the nation through the next four years.

Here's a closer look at the process of electing the U.S. president and what to expect in the months ahead.

On the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November, millions of Americans will cast their votes in the presidential election. This year, an estimated 160 million ballots will be counted, with voters choosing not only the president but also a wide array of state and local officials. Most voters go to the polls on Election Day, but early voting and absentee voting allow millions to vote in advance.

In the United States, the president is not chosen by a simple majority of votes. Instead, the Electoral College system ultimately determines the winner. Each state is assigned a number of electors proportional to its congressional representation, totaling 538 electors nationwide. On Election Day, voters indirectly select their preferred slate of electors for president.

In most states, the candidate who wins the majority of votes receives all of that state’s electoral votes. To win the presidency, a candidate needs a majority—270 electoral votes. If neither candidate reaches 270 electoral votes, resulting in a tie, the election outcome is decided by the House of Representatives. In this case, each state’s congressional delegation gets a single vote, with 26 votes required to win. This rare process has happened only twice in U.S. history, in 1801 and 1825.

With early and mail-in voting increasingly popular, the final outcome may not be known immediately, especially if the race is close. Ballots in many states take days or even weeks to fully count, especially as mail-in ballots must often be verified by hand.

December 17: The Electoral College convenes. Electors meet in each state and the District of Columbia to officially cast their votes for president and vice president.

December 25: By this date, electoral votes must be received by the vice president in her role as president of the Senate and by the national archivist.

January 6, 2025: A joint session of Congress is held, where the vice president presides over the formal count of the electoral votes. Congress confirms the winner, barring objections.

On January 6, 2021, both the House and Senate rejected GOP objections to the results in Arizona and Pennsylvania. Following that turbulent day, when Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol, Congress passed reforms to the 1800s-era Electoral Count Act, clarifying the vice president’s ceremonial role and raising the threshold for contesting state results. The new law, the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act of 2022, raises the threshold for challenges, requiring one-fifth of both the House and Senate to contest state results.

Following confirmation, the new president and vice president are formally inaugurated on January 20, taking their oaths of office in Washington, D.C. This ceremony on the steps of the Capitol marks the official transition of power or the continuation of a returning one.