Now less than five months out from the general election, Americans need to brace themselves for the real possibility that the presidential contest won’t be decided on Election Night.

And that’s even if one of the candidates ultimately pulls off a decisive victory.

With more states voting by mail due to the pandemic, and with some states having a history of counting these ballots slowly, we might not know who won a state for a week — if not longer.

Case in point is the 2018 Senate race in Arizona between Republican Martha McSally and Democrat Kyrsten Sinema.