Here's why you don't get final results on Election Night
North Carolina polls are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. But after the polls close, county and state elections officials go through many more steps before they can certify results.
Posted — UpdatedDuring the 2020 election, the time it took to get final results became a big issue. Many states took days to finalize their results. Election deniers claimed that was proof there was something criminal going on, and that we should have had the results on election night. There was no proof of any wrongdoing.
Elections officials say that's just how the process works, and it always has been. They say the system is designed not for speed, but to ensure the security of your vote and to make sure every eligible vote is counted.
As each polling location closes, officials must tabulate the results, secure the machines and ballots, and physically drive them all over to the county elections board, where they’ll be added up on a secure computer and then uploaded to the state elections site. In large counties with a lot of precincts, this process can take a while. For example, in Wake County, there are 208 precincts, which means traffic jams in the parking lot at the county elections board as 208 chief precinct judges line up to bring back their results.
Ballots from absentee voters in the U.S. that were postmarked by Election Day can be counted if they arrive in the mail by the third day after the election. This year, because that third day falls on Veterans Day, which doesn't have mail service, the deadline is Monday, Nov. 14.
Ballots arriving from overseas and military voters have an even longer period to be counted. They're eligible if they're received up to nine days after the election as long as they were postmarked by Election Day.
And there's the issue of provisional ballots. Those are the ballots voters can use on Election Day if show up at a precinct to vote, but are told they're not eligible to vote there. Election officials have to research each provisional ballot to determine whether that voter was truly eligible to cast it. The bipartisan county board decides whether to accept or reject those.
These late-counted votes usually make up only a tiny fraction of the total vote count. However, in a very close race, they can change the outcome.
County election officials also use the ten-day canvass period to reconcile numbers and conduct hand-eye audits, making sure every vote was correctly and fairly counted before certifying the results.
After that, the county results go to the state, which has an additional ten days to follow up on any issues and double-check vote totals before issuing election certificates that allow the winners to be sworn in.
Related Topics
• Credits
Copyright 2024 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.