When Will We Know Who Won? 2 Charts You Need
If this turns out to be a lopsided contest, we may know the likely result by early the next day.
By TokyoSand / Political Charge
Thanks to the huge increase of mail-in ballots this year, it is very likely that we won’t know who has won the presidency on Election Night.
But when will we know? Every state has different dates when they process and then tabulate mail-in ballots, and while many require that ballots are received by Election Day, quite a few allow ballots to be received anywhere from 1-17 days afterwards.
I searched all over to make sense of all the deadlines, and found these two charts that are really helpful.
Chart 1: When will ballots be processed?
Before a mail-in ballot can be counted, the signature on the envelope needs to be confirmed, the ballot needs to be taken out of the envelope, and then flattened in order to be tabulated. Those states that process mail-in ballots BEFORE Election Day will be better able to release results from those ballots quickly. The states that don’t start processing mail-in ballots until Election Day will not be so quick. Here’s a handy chart from the New York Times that breaks this down for us.
Chart 2: How late can absentee ballots be received?
Of course, the results of in-person ballots that are cast on Election Day are generally available later that same night, in all but the closest of races. But this year, with the potential of a majority of ballots being cast prior to the big day, it really matters how long after Election Day a ballot can be received and still be tabulated.
As you can see, there are quite a few swing states that are crucial to determining who won the Electoral College or states with an important Senate race that allow ballots to be received quite a number of days AFTER Election Day.*
*The Michigan info may ending being wrong as the 14 day window was recently struck down. At this point, ballots must be received by 8pm on Nov. 3 to be counted. Lawsuits may change dates in several states.
Making sense of it all
One thing we all need to watch out for, is media outlets that aren’t being transparent about how many outstanding ballots there still are in any given state. Taking North Carolina as one example, ballots can be received up to 3 days after Election Day, so anytime we see the networks or social media talking about how many votes have been counted for Biden or Trump, we need to remind people that there are 3 more days worth of ballots to count.
The other thing is, there are a handful of swing states that we should have substantial results from on Election night, like Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Wisconsin and possibly Ohio. If this turns out to be a lopsided contest, we may know the likely result by early the next day.
In any case, I encourage you to either share this article or the information in these charts widely — both to spread the word that results will come in over a series of days, but also letting people know exactly when certain states should be reporting results.