The reason why the results of this year’s US presidential elections may be announced late is not due to errors in the electoral system. Instead, one of the big impact factors is that tens of millions of people vote by mail instead of going to the polling station in person for fear of Covid-19 infection.
Vote-by-mail ballots generally take longer to count. In states that have full mail-in ballot processing and allow pre-election processing, results will be announced immediately after voting time ends.
However, in many states that do not allow pre-processing of ballots, all work will go to Election Day.
Elections Officer in Columbus, Ohio
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In battlefield states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, the law strictly limits the processing time for postal ballots. Republican-controlled legislatures in these states have opposed calls to speed up the count. Instead, direct ballot counting takes precedence and then mail-in ballots, according to AP. These states were found to only complete vote counting after Election Day.
Meanwhile, in states like Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, the count generally ends on Election Night and the results of the vote-by-mail count are also announced in advance.
Major media outlets like the AP typically announce winners on election night based on published results, voter polls, and other data.
However, if the results are too close, more votes will need to be counted to ensure a winner.
2020 US elections: the first victories of Donald Trump and Joe Biden
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In theory, it is still possible to find a winner on election night. If several key states publish their results early and a candidate has at least 270 electoral votes, the results from states like Michigan, Pennsylvania or Wisconsin will no longer matter.
Florida is one of the states that receives special attention. The state allows mail-in ballots to be processed 22 days before official election day. This is a fluctuating state with a substantial number of electoral votes (29 votes). According to CNN, the majority of the votes before Election Day will be announced in advance and the counting of votes generally ends on Election Night in Florida. If President Trump loses in Florida, it will be very difficult to get the 270 electoral votes needed to defeat Biden, predicts AP.
