Former President Barack Obama took to social media Tuesday afternoon to preach patience to American voters, advising that the result of the election will likely not be known until later in the week.
"Let the process run its course. It takes time to count every ballot," Obama posted on X.
Five of the seven battleground states are not expected to declare a winner until at least Wednesday, with Nevada and Arizona likely taking longer than that.
"It took several days to count every ballot in 2020, and it's very likely we won't know the outcome tonight either," Obama said in the post. "So please keep a few things in mind as you make your voice heard today: Thousands of election workers around the country are working hard today. Respect them. Thank them."
And, ostensibly in an effort to mitigate false rumors from being spread, he added: "Don't share things before checking your sources."
Georgia and North Carolina could declare a winner Tuesday night, while Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin are targeting Wednesday, if not longer, according to the BBC. At issue are individual state laws that dictate when states can begin processing mail-in ballots and collecting ballots from drop boxes on Election Day, according to Forbes.
As of Tuesday, 84.2 million voters nationwide returned a ballot in advance, according to The Associated Press. That’s more than half of the total turnout in the 2020 presidential election, according to the Federal Election Commission, which reported that 158,429,631 people voted in the 2020 presidential election, according to USA Today.