What scenarios are possible after the US elections?
3:06
(CNN) -
First, have you already voted?
If not, make your plan and go vote now.
Many states allow same day registration.
For your state's rules, check out CNN's voter guide here.
Minute by minute: Election day arrived in the United States
These are the keys to the election night:
How long will election night last?
Who knows!
CNN won't screen a winner from a state until the polls close in that state (and maybe much later if things are tight).
When do the polls close?
Polls close at different times starting at 7 p.m. ET on the East Coast.
The last polls will close at 1 a.m. ET in Alaska.
When do the polls close in key states?
7 p.m. ET - Georgia, which is interesting at the presidential and Senate level.
Kentucky and South Carolina have key Senate races.
7:30 pm ET - North Carolina and Ohio.
There is a close race for the Senate in North Carolina.
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8 pm ET - Florida and Pennsylvania.
Maine has a key Senate race.
9 p.m. ET - Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, Texas and Wisconsin.
There are also key Senate races in Arizona, Michigan, Colorado and Texas.
10 p.m. ET - Iowa and Nevada.
When will we know who the winner is?
This is an impossible question to answer, because we don't know how all early voting will affect the ability of different states to report results quickly.
Many, millions more Americans have voted early in person or by mail this year due to the pandemic, so it could take longer to count those ballots, particularly in some key states (ahem, Pennsylvania).
What do we know about how the voting will go on Election Night?
We have some educated guesses.
We may know some states early.
A large proportion of Americans vote early and, in most states, election officials can take advantage of those ballots to generate results quickly after the polls close.
So in disputed states like Florida and Texas, we can get a really good idea early in the evening of how things will go.
Some states may take several days.
In Pennsylvania, for example, election officials can't do anything about early voting until Election Day.
Some counties won't even pick them up until the day after Election Day.
Keys 2020 United States Elections