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What Happens After Election Day? This is the process to know the result of the elections
We have outlined the legal mechanisms that run from Election Day to Inauguration Day. Next to each item we indicate whether state laws or federal laws are relevant.
November 3 – Election Day
Voters vote, votes are counted. (State and federal laws)
While many millions of Americans cast their votes in the weeks leading up to Election Day, either by mail or as absentee voters, American law says that Election Day occurs on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Votes are counted across the country on Election Day. While news networks will screen winners in certain races, there is always time after Election Day for provisional or mail-in votes to be counted.
November 4 – November 23
Election result: more votes are counted. (State laws)
Ballots by mail must be postmarked November 3 in all US states, but can be received late and still count in many states. In most cases, they must be received within a day or two before Election Day. But in Washington state, ballots by mail can be received until November 23, the day before the state certifies its election results. In key uncertain voting states North Carolina and Pennsylvania, mail-in votes can be received through November 6.
In uncertain voting states Minnesota and Nevada, they can be received through November 10. And in Ohio, they can be received until November 13.
November 10 – December 11
The states certify the results of the elections. (Federal laws)
Each state does it a little differently, but beginning one week after Election Day, state governments begin certifying their election results. Those timelines can be changed in the event of a state recount if there is an extremely close result. Most of these dates occur in the last two weeks of November and all except California must occur before December 8.
December 8: “Safe Harbor” to determine the outcome of elections and allocate voters.
(Federal laws)
Under the Electoral Counting Law, this is the date by which states must count votes, resolve disputes, and determine the winner of the electoral college votes. Governors are supposed to create verification certificates listing the winner of the election and the voters list. In 2000, the Supreme Court ended a specific recount in Florida because it could not be completed on this safe harbor date. That recount would not have changed the election result, but a complete statewide recount could have made Al Gore president. This is when it could become very important for Republicans controlling more state legislatures than Democrats, even in most of the contested states in 2020.
December 14: the results of the elections are made official
Election results: electoral votes cast. (Federal laws)
By law, this date is the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December. This year it falls on December 14. Six days after the disputes are supposed to be resolved, voters are supposed to meet in their respective states and cast votes for the president of the United States. They certify six sets of votes and send them to Washington. Many states have laws that require their constituents to support the winner of their state’s election and can impose fines on unfaithful voters who go their own way.
December 23th
Election Result: Electoral votes must reach Washington. (Federal laws)
Electoral votes certified with the election results have nine days to get from their states to the Capitol.
January 3
The new Congress is sworn in. (Federal laws)
Members of the House and new members of the Senate are sworn in at noon. This is the official start of the 117th Congress.
January 6th
Election result: electoral votes counted. (Federal laws)
Members of the House and Senate meet. The President of the Senate (Vice President Mike Pence) presides over the session and electoral votes are read and counted in alphabetical order by two appointees from the House and Senate. They then hand over their counts to Pence, who announces the election results and listens to objections.
If there are objections or if there are, in any way, multiple lists of voters submitted by a state, the House and Senate consider them separately in deciding how to count those votes.
What if there is no winner in the election result? There are 538 electoral votes, one for each congressman and senator plus three for the city of Washington, DC. If no candidate gets 270, the 435 members of the House decide the election. Each state gets one vote. While there are more Democrats in the House, Republicans as of now control more state delegations, so it’s very possible that the House could elect Donald Trump even though there is a Democratic majority. A majority of state votes is required to become president. The Chamber has until noon on January 20 to elect the president. If they can’t, it would be the vice president or the next eligible person in the presidential line of succession. If neither a president nor a vice president was elected, the next person in line of succession is the Speaker of the House, who today is Nancy Pelosi.
Meanwhile, in accordance with the 12th amendment, the senators elect the vice president. It is technically possible for the House to lock in with the president and the Senate to elect a vice president to become president. Currently, Republicans have the majority in the Senate, but Democrats hope to win it in November.
If there is a 50-50 tie in the Senate, it is strangely possible that Vice President Mike Pence could cast the deciding vote that gives him another term.
January 20
Opening Day. (Federal laws)
A new president takes the oath at noon. If the president-elect dies between election day and inauguration, the vice-president-elect is sworn in and becomes president. In a contested election, if the House has not elected a president but the Senate has chosen a vice president, the vice president-elect becomes interim president until the House holds an election. And if there is no president-elect or vice-president-elect, the House appoints a president until one is elected. Under the Presidential Succession Act, the incumbent president will likely be Nancy Pelosi if she resigns from Congress.
