Once the last voter casts his ballot in a state and the polls close, the process of announcing the winner begins. That’s when Election Day turns into Election Night and each state begins reporting its vote totals.

Some states – like Florida, Georgia and North Carolina – report their ballots quickly, while others like Arizona, Nevada and California typically take longer, more than a week or two, to tabulate most of their ballots. In many states, patterns in how votes are reported can make it difficult to tell who will ultimately be the winner in the middle of election night.

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Let’s make one thing clear: the polls cannot tell us who will win the presidential election. Or which party will control Congress. Or who will win a particular state.

They don’t tell us who’s going to win, but we’ll know soon enough. What the polls can already do is help explain the forces that shaped this election and how former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris could emerge victorious.

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Americans have two big questions as they face another election with a deeply divided electorate: Who will win, and when will they know?

In 2020, election week replaced election night: Joe Biden was only declared the winner on Saturday. This year it could go either way. It could take a week for the NBC News Decision Desk to announce a presidential winner, but it could happen as early as Wednesday, even Wednesday morning.