Voters line up in Shaw on Tuesday. Photograph by Evy Mages The day we’ve all been waiting for (or dreading) is finally here. With more than 78 million people across the US voting early, including 86,000 DC voters, the election is tight. Polls say it’s simply too close to call, and with more lining up at polling stations all over the country Tuesday, we likely won’t know the results for days. So the question on all of our minds is: When exactly will we know the newest occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?   Why the delay? The race is extremely tight and will come down to a couple of states, so a winner won’t come out as a front runner anytime soon. The Washington Post‘s polling averages say Vice President Harris currently leads in four of seven battleground states—Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Michigan—but national polls show her and former President Trump within just a few percentage points of each other across the board. Additionally, individual states have their own procedures for voting that can extend the counting time. Key swing states  like Arizona and Pennsylvania have absentee ballot procedures that may take days to go through. But Washingtonians won’t have to wait long to hear how DC voted. The District’s results will likely be called Tuesday night. Local results are what to watch here: This heavily Democratic city is not in play on the national level.    When will we know? The 2020 election saw record high voter turnout, with 66.8 percent of eligible voters participating nationally. President Biden wasn’t declared President-elect until four days later. This time around, the projected voter turnout is slightly more than in 2020, so experts think it will likely take a similar amount of time to get results back. David Becker, the executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, thinks we shouldn’t wait up for those results to roll in during the early morning hours. During a recent interview with 60 Minutes, Becker said results will likely be in either Thursday or Friday. Election experts agree and project that we won’t know who won for days.The post When Will We Know the Election Result? first appeared on Washingtonian.