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Key deadlines for the 2024 election results certification process
President-elect Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race, but several key dates are still ahead in the certification process before he takes the oath of office for his second term.
Though considered bureaucratic in the past, the certification process has come under increased public scrutiny since the 2020 election, when Trump and his allies pushed false, unproven claims of widespread voter fraud and unsuccessfully challenged the results in court.
Election officials and experts repeatedly stress that U.S. elections are free and fair.
The disinformation campaign ultimately culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol that briefly delayed a joint session of Congress from certifying the 2020 election results. Trump has been charged with four counts in a case brought by special counsel Jack Smith stemming from his post-election conduct.
In late 2022, as a direct response to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform Act to tighten and clarify the rules of the electoral certification process.
Here are the key presidential election certification dates for battleground states, the Electoral College and Congress.
Battleground state certification deadlines
Arizona
State deadline: Nov. 25, 2024
County boards of supervisors have until Nov. 21 to officially count votes in a process known as the “canvass.” Upon completion, the boards must send a copy to the secretary of state, who has until Nov. 25 to finish the statewide canvass and issue certificates of election.
Georgia
State deadline: Nov. 22, 2024
County election superintendents must certify results by 5 p.m. ET on Nov. 12 and immediately send them to the secretary of state, who has until 5 p.m. on Nov. 22 to certify the votes cast and transmit them to the governor.
Michigan
State deadline: Nov. 25, 2024
Boards of county canvassers must complete a canvass of the election by Nov. 19 and forward the results to the secretary of state within 24 hours. The Board of State Canvassers must then meet to finish its canvass and certify the outcome by Nov. 25.
Nevada
State deadline: Nov. 26, 2024
Boards of county commissioners must finish the canvass of ballot returns and send the results to the secretary of state by Nov. 15. A majority of justices from the Nevada Supreme Court must then meet with the secretary of state by Nov. 26 to canvass the vote. Once the statewide canvass is done, the governor will issue certificates of election.
North Carolina
State deadline: Dec. 2, 2024
County boards of elections must meet at 11 a.m. ET on Nov. 15 to canvass the votes and mail abstracts — forms showing the votes cast for each candidate — to the State Board of Elections and Clerk of the Court. The State Board of Elections will then meet at 11 a.m. on Nov. 26 to conduct a statewide canvass. Barring any protest, the state board will issue certificates of election on Dec. 2. If a protest is pending, the state board could delay certification until 10 days after its final decision on the matter.
Pennsylvania
Deadline: Nov. 25, 2024
County boards of elections must submit unofficial results to the secretary of the commonwealth by 5 p.m. on Nov. 12. If after five days there are no petitions for recounts or recanvasses filed, the county boards will certify the results with the secretary of the commonwealth. Boards must certify by Nov. 25 even in the event of a recount or a recanvass. The secretary will then conduct a statewide canvass and present the results to the governor, for which there is no state deadline.
Wisconsin
State deadline: Dec. 1, 2024
County clerks have until Nov. 19 to deliver certified vote statements to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. The commission chair must then conduct a public canvass and certify the results by Dec. 1.
Full Electoral College election results certification deadline
Safe harbor deadline: Dec. 11, 2024
Under federal law, states have until Dec. 11 to certify election results, known as the safe harbor deadline.
Meeting: Dec. 17, 2024
After this date, state election results become finalized. On Dec. 17, Electoral College electors will meet and cast votes for the presidential candidates according to the will of their states. The results are then sent to Congress.
U.S. Congress election results certification deadline
Certification deadline: Jan. 6, 2025
On Jan. 6, 2025, four years after the assault on the Capitol, the House of Representatives and the Senate will convene to count and finalize the votes cast by the Electoral College. Lawmakers can object to a state’s electors, but the 2022 Electoral Count Act raised the necessary threshold to one-fifth of the House and Senate to proceed with the objection.
Climate scientists working at the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service have announced that 2024 is “virtually certain” to be the warmest year on record.
According to its ERA5 dataset, the agency said it was “virtually certain” that the annual temperature for 2024 will be more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial level, and it will likely be more than 1.55 C above.
For decades, scientists have warned that average global temperatures should not get any higher than 1.5 C above pre-industrial times in order to prevent deadly weather conditions that could impact people worldwide.
The world has already warmed considerably and has seen the effects with back-to-back heat waves, droughts and unprecedented flooding and hurricane events. The way farmers are able to grow food has already started to shift, and with 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius of warming, agricultural yields will decline and sea levels could rise up to 10 feet, researchers have found. Experts say the oceans will also be warmer, fueling more powerful hurricanes and threatening ecosystems that are fundamental for economies and help protect areas from inclement weather.
Copernicus Climate Change Service /ECMWF
“This marks a new milestone in global temperature records and should serve as a catalyst to raise ambition for the upcoming Climate Change Conference, COP29,” said Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, in a statement.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service said the average global temperature anomaly for the first 10 months of 2024 (January to October) is 0.71 C above the 1991-2020 average, which is the highest on record for this period and 0.16 C warmer than the same period in 2023.
“The average temperature anomaly for the rest of 2024 would have to drop to almost zero for 2024 to not be the warmest year,” the agency said.
The agency added that given that 2023 was 1.48°C above the pre-industrial level according to its ERA5 model, it was also likely that the annual temperature for 2024 will be more than 1.55°C above.
European temperatures were above average over almost all of the continent, Copernicus found. Outside Europe, temperatures were most above average over northern Canada, and well-above average over the central and western United States, northern Tibet, Japan and Australia.
Copernicus Climate Change Service /ECMWF
The agency also said Arctic sea ice reached its fourth lowest monthly extent for October, at 19% below average. Sea ice extent is a measure of the surface area of the ocean which is covered by ice.
Sea ice concentration anomalies were well below average in all peripheral seas of the Arctic Ocean, particularly in the Barents Sea, Canadian Archipelago, and north of Svalbard, the agency said.
Antarctic sea ice extent was 8% below average in October, which was the second-lowest such average behind only October 2023, when it was 11% below average, Copernicus said. Those numbers continued “a series of large negative anomalies observed throughout 2023 and 2024.”
The Copernicus Climate Change Service, which is funded by the EU, routinely publishes monthly climate bulletins reporting on changes observed in global surface air and sea temperatures, sea ice cover and hydrological variables. All the reported findings are based on computer-generated analyses and the ERA5 dataset, which uses billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world.
In a report published last month, the United Nations warned that the world is now in “climate crunch time” as greenhouse gases — which trap heat in the atmosphere that warms global temperatures and fuels more extreme weather events — have hit “unprecedented levels.”
“The numbers paint a clear picture,” the U.N. said. “To keep emissions below the critical 1.5-degree target set in Paris in 2015, countries must cut emissions by 42 percent overall by 2030 and achieve a 57 percent reduction by 2035.”
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