Important dates in the US presidential race

American voters will go to the polls on Tuesday to cast their ballots in the presidential election after a fierce contest between Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, and former Republican Donald Trump.

Here is a schedule of events taking place between now and Inauguration Day in January 2025.

November 5: Election day

Later in November: It could take several days to know the election results, especially if it’s close and mail-in ballots play an important role.

November 26: Trump, the first sitting or former US president to be convicted of a crime, is scheduled to be sentenced in a Manhattan hush money case in which he was found guilty of falsifying documents to conceal payments to silence a porn star. Trump has denied any wrongdoing. The verdict was originally scheduled for September 18.

December 11: States must turn over certified lists of presidential electors to the Archivist of the United States by this date as part of a 2022 federal law intended to prevent a repeat of the chaos following attempts to overturn Trump’s 2020 defeat.
But the battleground states of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have not adopted the reforms, leaving their electoral systems — and the potentially decisive 29 of the 538 Electoral College votes — vulnerable to partisan lawsuits and political pressure that could force them to miss the deadline.

December 17: Electors, who together make up the Electoral College, meet in their states and the District of Columbia to elect the president and vice president.

December 25: By this date, electoral votes must be received by the president of the Senate – a position held by the vice president, currently Harris – and the archivist.

2025

January 6: The vice president presides over the counting of the Electoral College votes in a joint session of Congress, announces the results, and announces who has been elected.

Before the count took place on January 6, 2021, then-President Trump sharply criticized his Vice President Mike Pence for refusing to prevent Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory over Trump.

That day, the US Capitol was attacked by Trump supporters who tried to stop the counting. Biden’s victory was confirmed the very next day.

Since then, Congress has passed reforms that require approval from one-fifth of the House and Senate to consider challenging a state’s results – a much higher bar than previously, when at least one member each of the Senate and House of Representatives could together pose a challenge.

January 20: The president-elect and vice president-elect take the oath of office during the swearing-in ceremony, which begins at 12:00 EST (17:00 GMT).