This is the first election in history where more people have voted in advance of Election Day than on it, and because of this, it means there may be some voting irregularities in terms of the time it takes to collect and expose the vote results. Taking the global pandemic into account means that it will inevitably be more difficult to count votes than past years—some results may come in quickly, while some might be delayed. Here’s what you need to know about the upcoming Election Day and how you can follow along with the results.

The winner of the election may not be clear by midnight today (3 November), which is not unusual as the last five election results have also run overtime, however, we might have a result in the presidential race by the end of the night if either candidates, Trump or Biden, achieve decisive wins in key states. The data from the amount of early voters may also provide important insights on the turnout of the election.

The first polls close in most of Indiana, in which the Vigo country on the Illinois border has voted for the winner of every presidential election since 1956 (but don’t count on it), and Kentucky.

Just an hour later, most polls will close in the highly important state of Floria. While the state is usually known to count votes quickly, let’s all practice non-expectation this time round, shall we? There will be a lot more to keep up with and watch out for.

While you keep one eye on Florida’s results, prepare for North Carolina to roll out their counts. Ohio, who has Biden in the lead with the early voter count, will be ready-set-go with their results around this time too. As this is happening, we’ll also be watching Cleveland. Oh, the drama.

You’ll really be sucked into the franticly tense whirlwind by now, but squint through the chaos regardless, as by this time in the race you might be seeing piles of numbers starting to form. Michigan, Texas will close some polling sites, with the rest closing at 9pm ET.

Pennsylvania, another state to close its polls at 8pm, is the hare in this nauseating race. It is very likely in fact that the election result of this state will not be known for days after the polls close, because the biggest city, Philadelphia, could take days to count its mail-in ballots.

Eyes will no doubt be getting scratchy here in the UK, but hang in there. You’ll be looking over your shoulder around now, back to Floria, North Carolina, Georgia and Ohio, but also, boom: Arizona.

Colorado, New Mexico, and Omaha, Nebraska. Take a breather, Wisconsin.

Will we sense a winner? Maybe not yet, but Utah, Nevada and Iowa are up next in line.

By this point, the polls will be closed on the west side of the US. California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii, and if we haven’t started to see a pattern already, these states will be the definitive show and tell.

Alaska will still be unfurling its cocoon, but for the rest of us, whether you’re just waking up, stress sleeping, or on the drags of an all nighter, the truth will be out and setting in around the world. All we can say really, is keep your fingers, toes (and anything else you can) crossed for a positive outcome.

One thing we do know for sure is that, no matter the final result, we will still get to call President Trump a ‘Lame duck’ as he sits out the remaining 73 days of his term in the Oval Office after the election.

President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are in their final moments before the US electoral race comes to a halt. More than 90 million people have cast their ballots in early voting, which put the country on course for its highest voting turnout in the last century. The tension is almost unbearable with everything else that is going on in the world today, and this particular election gives off the notion that it will affect more nations than the one it is taking place in, putting even those that cannot vote on edge.

To help you keep perspective on the matter, we listed the five main opposing promises that the two candidates have stated, so that whatever happens, at least you’ll have a substantial (even if illusory) way of direction. Here are the promises:

If Trump gets elected to run in a second term agenda, he first and foremost seems to be promising a healthier economy with a focus on jobs and taxes. Trump has also taken credit for the booming economy that the US was enjoying before the COVID-19 pandemic, and has vowed to rebuild it as well as to create 10 million new jobs in 10 months and one million new small businesses. Tax cuts are a big part of this promise, which he had already started to introduce in his first term. These tax cuts and credits would supposedly entice companies to keep jobs in the US rather than overseas.

After drinking bleach as a remedy against COVID-19 was thankfully put aside, finding an effective vaccine for COVID-19 within the coming months has proven worthy of Trump’s attention, enough for the Trump administration to launch ‘Operation Warp Speed’, which goal is to encourage the development and distribution of a successful vaccine. Trump has promised to deliver this success by the end of 2020.

After months of protests against police brutality and racism, Trump has promised to defend America’s police forces instead of its citizens. His campaign promises to protect police funding as well as hire more officers, increase the level of punishments for attacks made on police and take action against political protest movements.

More than this, the law and order incentive also includes tougher action to be taken against illegal immigration, which will include stronger requirements for legal immigrants in turn. On the other hand, Biden promises to reverse the separation of parents from their children and rescind limits on the number of applicants for asylum as well as end the bans on travel from several majority-Muslim countries.

Like Biden, Trump is trying to lure US citizens into giving their vote by promising them a better tax plan, which would be to retain the 37 per cent income tax rate on higher earners, and lower the 22 per cent rate for middle earners down to 15 per cent. However, this has not all been formalised by his campaign yet.

Having spent almost five decades in politics, Biden is using his experience to portray himself as a steady and able hand to calm a country in chaos. He is appealing to reluctant voters who are nostalgic about the Obama era. Obama has recently joined forces with Biden on his campaign train in Michigan. For Biden, health care has been made clear as one of his top priorities due to his family history. His plan is to expand the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and insure that around 97 per cent of Americans have access to public health insurance.

Biden has some ambitious, yet necessary plans to combat climate change, which include overhauling the country’s energy industry to achieve 100 per cent emission free power by 2035. A pledge of a $2 trillion dollar investment will go towards the clean-energy infrastructure if Biden wins the election, along with a promise to build 1.5 million energy efficient homes and social housing units. In his second presidential debate with Trump, he has promised to transition from the oil industry and wants to decrease fracking, which is a method of extracting natural gas from the ground.

Biden wants to restore America’s reputation and relationships with the rest of the world and allies, particularly with the NATO alliance, which is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 North American and European countries. He also looks to repair ties with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and wants to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement. He further said he will  hold China accountable for unfair trade practices, but has suggested that it would be best to tackle this as an international effort rather than through trade wars.

Biden promises to raise taxes on the wealthiest US citizens, which he defines as those with an income of more than $400,000 per year. He wants to impose a marginal tax rate increase so that the more an employee earns over that certain threshold, the more tax they must pay. Most of those who will be affected by this promise are those in the top 1 to 2 per cent earners in the US.

Biden also wants capital gains and dividends to be taxed at income rates. A notable endorsement has been towards his promise in forgiving student loan debt, expansion of tuition free colleges and universal preschool access, which would be paid using money gained from withdrawing from the Trump-era tax cuts.