Fact check: Counting votes routinely takes days after polls close, sometimes weeks
The claim: The U.S. ‘could easily count every vote in every state on election night until a few years ago’
Ahead of the midterm elections, some social media users are claiming that, until recently, election officials across the country could finish counting votes on election night.
“Funny how we could easily count every vote in every state on election night until a few years ago,” reads a screenshot of a tweet in a Nov. 2 Facebook post. It was shared more than 200 times in five days.
The original tweet, posted Nov. 1, was retweeted more than 14,000 times and liked more than 67,000 times.
But the claim is wrong. Ballot counting has never been completed on Election Day in any state at any point in the nation’s history, David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research, told USA TODAY.
Most of the results the public gets by election night are from that day's in-person voting and early in-person voting, along with any preprocessed mail-in ballots in states that allow that to happen. The time needed to project winners based on these results has grown in recent years with the growth of mail-in voting, but official results have always taken days or weeks to finalize given the array of checks and balances used by election officials, experts say.
USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment.
Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks
Media outlets call races based on partial, unofficial results
It's important to recognize the difference between the official results and the unofficial results used by media outlets to call races for particular candidates, Becker said.
"Media outlets generally feel confident calling the race when the partial unofficial results they receive, matched with exit polling and sufficient margins, allow them to confidently project that the remaining votes left to be counted cannot exceed the margin," he said.
Official results have always taken days or weeks to finalize, but the time needed to make preliminary calls on races has grown with the use of mail-in and absentee ballots. The use of absentee and early voting grew from 20% of voters in the 2004 election to 40% in the 2016 election and 69% amid the pandemic in 2020, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The Associated Press called the 2012 presidential race for Barack Obama at 11:38 p.m. Eastern time on election night, which was relatively early when compared to the two more recent presidential elections.
Donald Trump's victory in the 2016 presidential election was called by the AP at 2:29 a.m. Eastern time on the day after Election Day. In 2020, with the pandemic and large numbers of mail-in ballots complicating the vote-counting process, Biden's victory wasn't called by the AP until 11:26 a.m. Eastern time Nov. 7, four days after Election Day.
Election officials preparing for the 2022 midterm elections have already warned that the results of many close races likely won't be known on election night. Only nine states expect to have at least 98% of unofficial results reported by noon the day after the election, The New York Times reported.
Results aren't officially certified for days or weeks after Election Day
There are several reasons why the counting of ballots can't be completed on election night, Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told USA TODAY.
Each state has to offer voters a so-called provisional ballot if there is any uncertainty about voter eligibility or identity. It can take several days for election officials to determine whether those provisional ballots can be counted, Burden said.
The rules vary by state, but military and overseas voters are often allowed to return ballots after Election Day. In Pennsylvania, for instance, these ballots must be mailed no later than the day before the election. They can arrive up to seven days after Election Day and still be counted, Burden said.
"Regardless of when ballots are submitted or received, all valid ballots count the same in the final totals," he said. "One type of ballot is not 'better' or more important than another type."
Fact check: Biden encouraged Americans to be patient as ballots are counted in 2022 midterms
The election results are not official until they're certified, a process that typically takes days or weeks to complete, Becker said.
"Some states certify the following week, some states take over three weeks," he said. "All results until then are unofficial and partial results."
Most states have an extensive process meant to ensure the accuracy of the vote before certifying the results, Burden said. That often means testing voting equipment to make sure it functioned properly.
The election process can take longer when the results are particularly close. That was what happened during the 2000 presidential election when "logistical voting issues, including a faulty ballot design, allegations of miscounts and court debates" meant the process lasted for five weeks – the longest election in modern U.S. history, USA TODAY reported.
PolitiFact also debunked the claim.
Our rating: False
Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that the U.S. "could easily count every vote in every state on election night until a few years ago." The increased use of mail-in and absentee voting has limited the ability to make early, unofficial calls of races in recent years. But it has always taken states days or even weeks to officially certify election results due to processes ensuring the accuracy of the count.
Our fact-check sources:
David Becker, Nov. 4, Email exchange with USA TODAY
Barry Burden, Nov. 7, Email exchange with USA TODAY
Federal Voting Assistance Program, accessed Nov. 7, Common Questions
About Absentee VotingUSA TODAY, Nov. 5, 2020, When was the longest election in modern US history? And could 2020 take even longer?
Census Bureau, April 29, 2021, Majority of Voters Used Nontraditional Methods to Cast Ballots in 2020
The Associated Press, Nov. 7, 2012, AP calls the presidential race – state by state
The Associated Press, Nov. 9, 2016, Calling the presidential race state by state
The Associated Press, Nov. 8, 2020, Calling the 2020 presidential race state by state
The Washington Post, Nov. 7, Election officials fear counting delays will help fuel claims of fraud
The New York Times, Nov. 7, How Long Will Vote Counting Take? Estimates and Deadlines in All 50 States
PolitiFact, Nov. 4, No, every vote wasn’t previously counted on election night
Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.
Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Vote counts aren't official for days or sometimes weeks