Election 2024: Donald Trump selects his campaign manager as incoming White House chief of staff

As millions of Americans prepare to descend on polling locations across the country, election officials and law enforcement authorities are focused on administering a fair and safe election under a cloud of threats, online disinformation, and the potential for a grueling legal fight in the weeks ahead.

Although a typical Election Day inevitably includes some hiccups like long lines or weather-related issues, this year election workers face the additional challenge of a heightened threat environment and an onslaught of litigation concerning voting rules and ballot counting.

Even so, election officials on Monday expressed confidence in their ability to execute on Election Day. Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt said the vote in his state would be "free, fair, safe, and secure." Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said that "at the end of the day, it's going to be fair and fast and accurate."

And in North Carolina, Karen Brinson Bell, the executive director of the state's Board of Elections, said, "Despite all the naysayers, despite all false information and sensationalist rhetoric out there about elections, and despite a devastating hurricane, we are making this happen in North Carolina."

-Lucien Bruggeman

The first election results will come in tonight shortly after 6 p.m. Eastern, but we will likely have to wait until Wednesday or even later to know who won. This is for two reasons: First, this is a really close race, and media outlets won't project a winner until they're absolutely certain that one candidate has an insurmountable lead. Second, it takes time for states to count the millions of ballots expected to be cast.

We may not know the results of the 2024 election on Tuesday night but we might have a good idea of how things are headed.

Each state counts votes on a different timeline. Roughly speaking, the seven main presidential swing states fall into three categories in this regard. First, Georgia and North Carolina are expected to count the quickest. Both of these states are expected to release a large chunk of their results shortly after polls close.

Then, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin count at a moderate pace. They will probably be counting all through the night but should be done by Wednesday morning (although Pennsylvania could take longer). Finally, Arizona and Nevada always take days to count their votes, so if the presidential race comes down to those states, don't expect a projection until late in the week.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have tied in the Dixville Notch midnight vote kicking off the official start to 2024's Election Day.

Following the national trends, indicating a very close race, Harris and Trump each garnered three votes between the six registered voters in Dixville Notch, a small New Hampshire north country town.

The group -- composed of four registered Republicans and two registered undeclared voters -- remained split in their decision for president.

In the race for New Hampshire's governor, Republican gubernatorial candidate Kelly Ayotte received five votes indicating that Dixville Notch opted to split their ballots compared to the presidential race.

In the last two presidential elections, the Dixville Notch voters have tilted toward the Democrats, giving all five of their votes in 2020 to President Joe Biden and four of their seven votes in 2016 to Hillary Clinton.

The tradition dates back nearly 60 years, but this year, Dixville Notch is the only town in New Hampshire that voted at midnight. Officials with two other towns that traditionally join in on the midnight voting -- Millsfield and Hart's Location -- have decided to hold more traditional, daytime voting hours.

With more journalists at the Balsam Resort than voters, the entire process from start to finish lasted nearly 10 minutes. After the national anthem was played, all six voters walked one-by-one into the voting booth before the ballots were subsequently hand counted and read out loud as the results were scribbled on a white board.

ABC News will have full coverage of the presidential election results and many other key down-ballot races on Election Day and the days afterward as votes continue to get counted.

Click here for everything you need to know to get the latest election results.