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The results reported right after the presidential election are reliable, but they are not official. The official results will arrive in the coming weeks, after a process called certification.

The details vary from state to state, but the point is for officials — sometimes called canvassers — to examine the raw numbers reported by precincts and verify that they are accurate and complete.

This starts at the county or municipal level, and then a state official or board must review the local certifications and certify the statewide totals. In presidential races, if states certify their results by the so-called safe harbor deadline — this year, it’s Dec. 8 — those results are largely insulated from further challenges.

States set their own deadlines, but they don’t always meet them: In Mississippi, for example, some counties certified their results late because staff members were out sick with the coronavirus. A missed state deadline isn’t necessarily a big deal. It’s the Dec. 8 deadline that really matters.

In some states, every county may have certified its results already, but it won’t be listed as complete until the state canvassers sign off.

Below is a list of certification deadlines for the key battleground states that President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. won. The Trump campaign’s strategy has been to try — so far unsuccessfully — to delay the certification processes in these states.