live from washington tonight. and mary, with this record-breaking number of early votes, of course, the big question we've all been talking about here at abc with our political team for weeks now, the realization this could be a very long election night, it could really last well beyond election night. so, where could we know in the evening on tuesday, where could we still be waiting hours, i hate to say it, but days into it? >> reporter: well, david, some critical states like florida and north carolina have already been processing ballots for weeks now. so, we could know a fair amount early on in the night. but experts we've talked with are especially concerned about those three critical battleground states that handed trump the presidency, that we may not know those results on election night. in michigan, they don't even start counting ballots until november 3rd. in pennsylvania and wisconsin, they don't even start opening them until then. so, while they will be working around the clock, david, the bottom line is that given this massive turnout and millions of ballots that have to be tallied, we could be waiting for results for days. david? >> mary, you'll be right here with us. but as mary just said, election