Polls closed Tuesday night on the contentious 2020 U.S. presidential election. Many states have been called for one candidate or the other already, despite ongoing counts; this is typically the case where one candidate has enough of a lead that the uncounted ballots won’t affect the outcome. Here are some simple examples of looking at those numbers, assuming there are 100 registered voters. For simplicity, we’ll pretend there are only 2 candidates.
- 87% of the counting is complete; Candidate A has 60 votes to Candidate B’s 37. With only 13 ballots left to count, Candidate B can’t catch up to Candidate A. The result is called for Candidate A.
- 76% of the counting is complete; Candidate A has 40 votes to Candidate B’s 36. The 24 remaining ballots could go either way, so the result is shown as leaning towards Candidate A, but is not called.
- 99% of the counting is complete; Candidate A and B both have 49 votes. (Since you can choose not to vote on a particular race, I’m assuming that 1 person skipped it, mainly because I’m ignoring the 3rd party candidates for simplicity.) The 1 ballot remaining could go either way, so the result is not called.
On top of that, we add the complexity of increased mail-in voting during the pandemic. Many states already allowed absentee ballots, and have processes for handling them, though presumably not to the level we’re seeing in this election. The confusing part is how much those rules vary by state: some states only count the mailed ballot if it’s received by Election Day, while others want it to be postmarked by Election Day and received within a certain timeframe. That timeframe is also set at the state level, with no consistency – some are 3 days, some 14. An important thing to note is that most of these deadlines were set before the pandemic, and have affected counting in previous elections as well.
Voting in person is relatively easy, either on a computer (in Illinois, these print to a small paper that you verify before submitting) or on paper, which is then dropped in a box and later tabulated. Voting by mail is even easier, sitting in the comfort of your own home, yet adds complexity to the processing. The ballot envelope is linked to your voting record, so when it’s received, the signature must be verified, the envelope opened (carefully, so as not to damage the ballot), and in some states, there’s an additional secrecy envelope inside. Clearly, this is a more time-consuming process.
Adding to that is the fact that many states don’t allow counting the mail-in ballots to start until Election Day, even if they’re received well before that. I can only imagine the staffing nightmares every election cycle, having to train people in something they’ll only do once or twice a year, if that.
Each state has set a deadline for certifying their results; this must fall before the Electoral College voting, which is scheduled for December 14th this year. From a quick glance through Ballotpedia and other informational websites, these trend towards the first week of December.
So how long does it take to count the votes? Legally, it could be up to a month in some states, though they’ll leave time for recounts and such before the state’s certification date. Realistically, it takes as long as it needs to make sure that every legally cast vote is counted. Counting every vote accurately is far more important than counting them quickly.