November 2, 2024
How do they count the votes on election night? And more importantly, what’s going to happen in the days after election day.
I want you to favorite this video, save it, do whatever you have to do to come back to it on election night just in case you need a reminder of how it works when you start to question what the hell is going on.
Before i explain how vote counting works. There are three things I want you to remember. One — every state has its own rules about how it counts votes. Two – it’s very common especially in tight races for the leader to change as more vote get counted. Just because a candidate is leading at the beginning of the night does not mean that candidate is going to win in the end. And three I know we live in an “on demand” society and everything we want shows up immediately – but that is not how vote counting works. It takes time. Hours, days sometimes weeks and just because results don’t come in immediately doesn’t mean there’s a problem! It’s not a conspiracy! This is how it works.
So now to the vote counting.
We see early voting, absentee voting and mail in voting in some form in every state. In fact we are seeing some solid numbers related to all of those types of ballots. Generally democrats have always taken advantage of those voting options but this year we are seeing more and more republicans also taking advantage of those voting options. But here’s the thing – depending on the state you live in – if you already successfully filled out and turned in your mail in or absentee ballot does not mean it’s been processed or counted yet. That’s because laws in several states don’t allow elections officials to even touch those ballots until election day. Including in two key swing states. Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. That means the votes that were cast in person on election day may get counted first and then elections workers will have to take the mail in and absentee ballots, verify the signatures, verify the registrations, open the ballots, flatten them out and then count them. And all that takes time. But in the swing state of Arizona things are different that state law allows elections officials to not only process but count mail in and absentee ballots before election day.
Some states allow vote counting to happen all through the night and overnight. But some states do not. Some states require the vote counting to stop late in the evening and then they pick it back up in the morning. You can check with your own secretary of state to see what the vote counting rules are in your state.
Lastly if the vote count is too close to call certain states allow candidates to request a recount of all the ballots and some states don’t allow candidates to make that call at all. Other states have laws in place that say if the margin between the winner and the runner up is less than half a percent or less than a few-thousand votes, then the state will automatically do a recount.
