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Jon Henley explains:
What usually happens?
Presidential elections in the United States are not won by the national popular vote. The winner in each state collects their votes from the electoral college and needs a total of 270 to take the White House.
In most elections, the result is clear, though not officially confirmed, by the end of the night. Major American media “call” each state for one of the candidates. While not based on the final vote count, that projection is almost always accurate.
This means that an accurate count of the electoral college votes can be made and a winner declared. In 2016, that happened at 2.30 a.m. in Washington when Trump hit the required 270.
Why isn’t that happening this time?
Mainly due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a large number of voters – around 68% of the total, compared to 34% in 2016 – cast their votes early, including by mail.
Counting of votes by mail is slower because the signatures and addresses of voters and witnesses must be verified, and the ballots must be smoothed before being fed into the counting machines. Some states begin that verification process well before Election Day, which means that the count itself can begin as soon as the polls close. Others, however, do not allow it.
What states are we talking about?
Five states have yet to be called: Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Alaska. Several news organizations, including the Associated Press and Fox News’ decision department, have called Arizona for Joe Biden. However, the Trump campaign contends that call was made too early. Your next update doesn’t expire until 9pm ET on Thursday.
Alaska will finish in the Republican column with almost certainty.
Pennsylvania officials say they expect a majority of the votes to be counted Friday.
The Democratic challenger is far ahead in Nevada, with only Democratic-trending late ballots to count. Officials have said no further results will be released in Nevada until noon ET Thursday.
In North Carolina, although Trump is the clear favorite, the state accepts postal ballots until November 12, although that is expected to make little difference.
What else is complicating things?
About half of all states will accept mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day as long as they are postmarked no later than November 3, so postal delays can mean that some ballots are not processed for days After: Pennsylvania has said the results won’t be considered complete until Friday’s deadline.
There has also reportedly been an increase in the number of provisional ballots cast by people who applied for a vote by mail but then decided to go to the polling station in person. These need a careful review to make sure no one has voted twice.
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