When will the new president of the United States be confirmed?It could take up to 13 days.

As the vote to determine the next U.S. president begins on the 5th local time, attention is also being paid to when the victory or defeat of the presidential election, which has been a close race within the margin of error, will be confirmed.

In the case of the 2020 presidential election four years ago, the election, which took place on November 3rd, was only confirmed on the 7th of the same month, and this time, nearly half of registered voters were found to have participated in early voting amid a close race, which observers say it may take time for states to finally determine the winner.

However, after the 2020 presidential election, when the COVID-19 pandemic brought early turnout to nearly 70%, some states have improved related procedures to quickly count early voting, including mail-in ballots.

For this reason, some predict that the results of this year's vote count will come out sooner than in 2020.

According to the Bipartisan Policy Center, a U.S. think tank, there are an estimated 244 million U.S. presidential voters this year.

If turnout this year reaches the level of 2020 (66.6%), 162 million people are expected to vote.

According to the University of Florida Elections Research Institute, more than 78 million people had voted in advance by the morning of the 4th.

Among them, 42.6 million people voted on-site at polling stations and 35.3 million by mail.

As 67.46 million out of all voters applied to vote by mail, the actual size of early voting is expected to increase further.

This size is smaller than the 2020 presidential election (114.5 million people) during the COVID-19 pandemic, but much more than the previous presidential election, such as 2016 (47.24 million people).

The election results of each state must be counted in the main and early votes. First of all, in the case of the main vote, the seven competing states will end at 10 p.m. on the 5th.

Among the 50 states where the presidential election is taking place and Washington DC, Indiana and Kentucky (6 p.m. Eastern Time) are the first to end voting.

Then, an hour later, seven states, including Georgia, will start counting the votes at the end of the vote. Later, other contending states such as North Carolina (7:30 p.m.), Pennsylvania (8 p.m.), Wisconsin (8 p.m.), Michigan (8 p.m., some 9 p.m.), Arizona (9 p.m.), and Nevada (10 p.m.) will end their voting sequentially.

The priority in the counting of votes is whether the close race will continue.

Most of the contending states have two candidates competing within the margin of error, and if the votes are counted in a toss-up, it is expected that the winner will have to be counted until the end.

In fact, if this pattern becomes a reality, the counting of early voting, including mail-in ballots, becomes important.

In the case of the 2020 presidential election, there was a so-called "red mirage" in which former President Donald Trump, whose party color is red, prevailed in the vote count, but the advantage disappeared as the early vote count progressed.

However, many Republican supporters who did not participate in early voting, including mail-in voting, due to the "voting manipulation conspiracy theory" at the time, have participated in early voting this time, so it is unclear which candidate the early voting will actually favor by state.

In this context, if an ultra-close confrontation occurs, early voting processing, including mail-in voting, is expected to have a decisive impact on the speed of winning and losing the election.

In particular, seven states, including Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the key contenders for the presidential election, are prohibiting early voting processing before the election.

This means that from election day, sealed envelopes should be opened, classified by constituency, and voter signatures should be checked.

For this reason, Pennsylvania's vote count and victory are likely to be key to determining the overall presidential election results.

In fact, Pennsylvania was only able to determine the winner on November 7, four days after the 2020 presidential election, and President Biden's election was confirmed shortly after the results came out.

Among the competing states, Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina allowed early voting to be processed before the main vote.

Among them, Georgia may know the results as soon as midnight on election night, according to congressional media The Hill and others.

However, in Arizona, which accepts mail-in ballots by the day of voting, it may take up to 13 days to finish both counting and counting because mail-in ballots start later than other states, U.S. media reported.

In addition, in Nevada, mail-in ballots postmarked by the post office on election day are considered to be valid until arrival four days after election day.

Georgia allows overseas and military voters to vote by mail up to three days after Election Day.