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WASHINGTON (AP) – The slow count of elections in the United States this year is drawing a lot of criticism, but it is mainly a reflection of laudable things: increased enthusiasm from voters and the steps that states have taken to protect their residents. of COVID-19.
THE ENTHUSIASM FACTOR
Although the tally is not yet complete, President Donald Trump has easily surpassed the number of votes he garnered four years ago: more than 70 million so far, up from about 63 million in his victorious 2016 career. Meanwhile, Democrat Joe Biden has won about 73.9 million votes, compared to 65.9 for Hillary Clinton.
In all, some 15 million more voters participated in this year’s presidential election than four years ago. Congratulations, Americans.
THE PANDEMIC FACTOR
Hoping to avoid long lines of people having to gather during a pandemic, states decided to make voting by mail easier and therefore safer for everyone.
US states like Minnesota, North Carolina and Nevada extended the deadlines for receiving ballots. Nebraska and Iowa joined the ranks of states that send an absentee ballot request to every registered voter. New Jersey and California mailed ballots to all registered voters, whether they requested it or not.
Millions of voters accepted the offer of the states and chose to vote by mail rather than in person on Election Day. For some states, that has meant a slowdown in tabulation of results because votes received by mail often take longer to process than ballots cast at polling places.
THE EXPERIENCE FACTOR
Some states have done much better than others processing ballots by mail.
States like Florida and North Carolina learned from the experience and allowed election officials to process mail-in ballots in the weeks leading up to Election Day.
In Florida, clerks can begin counting ballots 22 days before an election. In North Carolina, beginning five weeks before an election, county boards insert approved ballots into a voting machine, allowing for quick tabulation on Election Day.
But other states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, all with Republican-led legislatures and all of them swinging states, made the conscious decision to wait for mail ballots to not be counted before Election Day. Michigan finally allowed election officials to process some ballots a day early, but the ballot counting still had to wait until Nov. 3.
THE PREDICTABILITY FACTOR
As state lawmakers struggled over how to process mail ballots, there were warnings of things to come.
Here’s what Eugene DiGirolamo, Republican commissioner for Bucks County, Pennsylvania, the fourth most populous county in the state, told The Associated Press two weeks before Election Day:
“I guess if we are only allowed to start on Election Day, it will be three, four or five days after the Election when we will scan and count these things,” DiGirolamo said. “I’m scared to death that Pennsylvania will look really bad, especially if the election for president is near and they are waiting for the results of the states that are battlefields like Pennsylvania is.”
