US election: What happens after the US election until the handover of power

The Republican Donald Trump has been confirmed as the winner of the US presidential election. What happens after election day?

The next hours and days

The election results in the states must first be counted and certified down to the last vote. In some states, mail-in ballots can still arrive that have been mailed on election day according to the postmark, sometimes from abroad. The official result must be known by December 11th.

An important formal act follows in mid-December that has to do with the special nature of the American electoral system. Citizens in the USA do not elect the president directly, but rather they decide which candidate wins the electorate in their respective state. These then come together on December 17th to vote.

The newly elected Congress meets for the first time and the new members take their oath of office. The American Parliament consists of two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and around a third of the 100 seats in the Senate were also up for vote in the election. The party that controls Congress can severely limit a president’s freedom of action.

The House of Representatives and Senate meet together to formally confirm the election results. The incumbent Vice President, i.e. the Democrat Kamala Harris, who was defeated in the election, will chair this meeting. After the 2020 election, Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol during this meeting.

The official transfer of power: The new president is sworn in in a solemn ceremony at the Capitol. The new government begins its work.