What to Watch for: The 2020 Presidential Election

You're probably anxious about the results, but patience may truly be a virtue on election night.

Followers of NPR's elections coverage should have read or heard this at least a few times by now: We may not know who wins the presidential election (or any number of other down-ballot races) on Tuesday night or early Wednesday, and that's OK.

State results are not final on election night; instead, organizations like The Associated Press — which NPR relies on for race calls — determine most winners well before local officials tabulate...

This year, the rise of mail voting will make election night much harder to follow. In most states, the results will be heavily skewed at various points of the night, depending on when a state counts mail ballots, in-person early voting or Election Day voting. In other words, the results could be very misleading. And in some states, the count might take days.

More than anything else, keep these three tips in mind:

Be cautious. A lot of states are changing the way they’re administering the election, and even the...