TAMPA, Fla. — With Election Day threatening to stretch into election week, it seems like the wait for the 2020 presidential race to be called could be a long one.
According to the Associated Press, Former Vice President Joe Biden leads with 264 electoral votes, while President Donald Trump trails behind with 214.
But while many mail-in and absentee ballots have yet to be counted across the nation, states like Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Alaska have yet to be called.
With a race this close, political experts say it's normal to not have a clear cut winner on election night, but this may not be the longest the U.S. has waited for results. A deeper dive into our nation's history gives us context.
1876 Election: (R) Rutherford B. Hayes vs. (D) Samuel J. Tilden
Hayes won the presidency by one electoral vote, but the race wasn't called for four months. The certification came on March 2, three days before his inauguration.
"We know the longest time and electoral process was back in 1876, back when neither candidate got enough electors. Florida was a pivotal part of that even back in 1876 because it was Florida, South Carolina, Louisiana, who continued to try to manipulate the electors, and that's what threw that election out very long," 10 Tampa Bay Political Expert Lars Hafner said.
Forty years later, the presidential race wasn't called for more than two weeks.
1916 Election: (D) Woodrow Wilson vs. (R) Charles Evan Hughes
President Wilson beat Hughes, but it was an extremely close race. Both parties claimed victory one day after Election Day. Hughes conceded on November 22nd.
Then, as most remember, in the year 2000, it took more than a month for a winner to be declared.
2000 Election: (R) George W. Bush vs. (D) Al Gore
In another close race, Bush was finally declared the winner after confusion over the tally of votes. The election came down to Florida after the state was forced into a recount.
"We just had a complete meltdown in our ability to count ballots. We had something like punch cards and so forth, now we have scan drones and we have corrected our problems. No longer is Florida the laughingstock of the nation in that regard there, but we had to wait a few days and even until the Supreme Court spoke in early December," USF Political Professor Ed Benton said.
The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to stop the recount in Florida and Bush was declared the winner. Now, 20 years later political experts say it isn't unusual to not have a clear winner on Election Day.
"That's always been the way, it's just that this year because the election's so close, it's taken a lot more time and care to get it right. Again, many, many more ballots to count because we set records for voting," Hafner said.
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