Election day is almost approaching. In a few hours, the final votes will be cast in the 2024 presidential election.

In a deeply divided country, the election features a real contest between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.

Barring a major surprise, we know there are seven battleground states that will decide the outcome. But significant questions remain about the timing of the results, the makeup of the electorate, the flow of misinformation and even the possibility of political violence. At the same time, both sides are preparing for a protracted legal battle that could complicate matters even further.

Here’s what to watch on the eve of Election Day 2024:

History will be written one way or another

Given all the twists and turns in recent months, it’s easy to overlook the historical significance of this election.

Harris would be the first female president in the 248-year history of the United States. She will also be the first Black woman and person of South Asian descent to hold the position. Harris and her campaign have largely downplayed gender and race for fear it could alienate some supporters. However, the importance of Harris’s win will not go unnoticed by historians.

Trump’s victory would represent a different kind of historical achievement. Convicted of 34 felonies in a New York hush-hush trial a little more than five months ago, he would be the first person convicted of a felony to be elected president of the United States.

Trump, who currently faces felony charges in at least two separate criminal cases, has argued that he is the victim of a politicized justice system. And tens of millions of voters appear to believe him or are willing to ignore his extraordinary legal burden.

How long will it take to find out the winner?

In the United States, Election Day is now generally considered election week; because each state follows its own rules and practices regarding vote counting, as well as legal challenges that could delay the results. But the truth is, no one knows how long it will take to announce the winner this time.

Associated Press in 2020 declared President Joe Biden won Saturday afternoon, four days after the polls closed. But even then, the AP called North Carolina for Trump 10 days after Election Day and Georgia for Biden 16 days after hand counts.

Four years ago, the 2016 election was decided just hours after most polls closed. The AP declared Trump the winner at 2:29 on election night (which was technically Wednesday morning on the East Coast).

This time, both campaigns believe the race is extremely close in the seven states expected to decide the election, barring a major surprise: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The size of the map and the narrowness of the race make it difficult to predict when the winner will be announced.

Where can I find early clues about how the competition might develop?

Look at two East Coast battleground states, North Carolina and Georgia, where results could come relatively quickly. This doesn’t mean we’ll get final results quickly in these states if returns are imminent, but these are early swing states that can give you an idea of ​​what kind of overnight we’re in for.

To dig deeper, look at the urban and suburban areas in the industrial North and Southeast where Democrats have made gains since 2020.

In North Carolina, Harris’ margins in Wake and Mecklenburg counties, home to the state capital Raleigh and the state’s largest city Charlotte, respectively, will reveal how much she will have to squeeze from less populated rural areas dominated by Trump.

In Pennsylvania, Harris needs heavy turnout in deep-blue Philadelphia, but she’s also looking to expand Democrats’ advantage in suburban counties north and west of the city. Bucks campaigned aggressively in Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties, with Biden surpassing Clinton’s margin of victory in 2016. The Philadelphia metropolitan area, which includes four collar counties, accounts for 43 percent of Pennsylvania’s vote.

Elsewhere on the Blue Wall, Trump needs to blunt democratic growth in Michigan’s key suburban counties outside Detroit, particularly Oakland County. Wisconsin’s Waukesha County, outside Milwaukee, faces the same challenge.

Where are the candidates?

Trump will likely spend the very early hours of Election Day in Michigan, where he is scheduled to hold a final late-night rally in Grand Rapids, as has become his tradition.

The Republican candidate plans to spend the rest of the day in Florida, where he is expected to vote in person, although he previously said he would vote early. He plans to hold a campaign viewing party in Palm Beach on Tuesday night.

Harris plans to attend an Election Night party at Howard University in Washington, a historically Black university where she graduated in 1986 with a degree in economics and political science and was an active member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.

Other than Howard, he has no public schedule announced for Election Day.

Harris said Sunday that she “just filled out” her mail-in ballot and that it was “on its way to California.”

Stephanie Perry, director of exit polls at NBC News, explains the entire process that goes into taking this poll after voters have cast their ballots.

Who’s left to take the stage on Election Day?

It’s unclear which voters will show up to vote on Tuesday, the eve of Election Day.

More than 77 million people participated in early voting in person or by mail. So many people have voted that some officials say polling places in states like Georgia could become “ghost towns” on Election Day.

One of the main reasons for the increase is that Trump is generally encouraging his supporters to vote early this time around; It’s a reversal from 2020, when he urged Republicans to vote only in person on Election Day. Early voting numbers confirm that millions of Republicans have heeded Trump’s call in recent weeks.

But the real question is whether the increased number of Republicans voting early this time around will eventually wipe out the number of Republicans voting Tuesday.

There are also changes on the Democratic side. Four years ago, as the pandemic continued, Democrats overwhelmingly voted early. But this time, without the risk to public health, more Democrats are likely to show up in person on Election Day.

This balance on both sides is critical when trying to understand early returns. Campaigning also includes knowing which voters still need to go to the polls on Tuesday. Democrats may have an advantage on this front.

Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee have outsourced much of their get-out-the-vote operations to outside groups; Among them is an operation financed largely by Trump’s billionaire ally Elon Musk that is facing new questions about its practices. Harris’ campaign, by contrast, runs a more traditional operation with more than 2,500 paid staff and 357 offices in battleground states alone.

Could there be unrest?

Trump has been aggressively pushing false claims in recent days that question the integrity of the election. Even though polls show the race to be a toss-up, he falsely insists he can only lose if Democrats cheat.

Trump could declare victory on election night, regardless of the results, as he did in 2020.

Such rhetoric can have dire consequences, as the nation saw during one of the darkest days in modern American history, when Trump loyalists stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. And unfortunately, there is still potential for more violence this election season.

The Republican National Committee on Tuesday deployed thousands of “election integrity” poll watchers to look for any signs of fraud, which critics fear could lead to harassment of voters or election workers. At some major polling places, officials have required sheriff’s deputies to be present, as well as bulletproof glass and panic buttons that connect poll managers to local 911 dispatchers.

At the same time, Trump’s allies note that Trump has faced two assassination attempts in recent months, raising the possibility of further threats against him. And police in Washington and other cities are preparing for the possibility of serious unrest on Election Day.

“As always, it is worth noting that a broad coalition of senior government and industry officials, most of them Republicans, found that the 2020 election was the “safest” election in American history.”

There are various types of voter fraud that make headlines every election; But how common is voter fraud really? Here’s what you need to know.

AP writers Tom Beaumont and Will Weissert in Washington and Jill Colvin in Grand Rapids, Michigan, contributed.