States won’t finalize vote totals until days or weeks after Election Day | Fact check
The claim: Delayed election results in Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania are evidence of voter fraud
An Oct. 22 Threads post (direct link, archive link) claims expected vote counting delays in some states are evidence of fraud.
“BREAKING: The Cheat Has Begun,” reads the post. The States of Michigan, Georgia, and Pennsylvania have officially announced that they will not have election results available on Election Night.”
It was liked more than 600 times in nine days.
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Our rating: False
While election officials in Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania have said vote counting won’t be finished on Election Day, experts say that isn’t evidence of fraud. It has always taken states days or weeks to finalize election results because of various requirements to ensure the count's accuracy.
Election officials ask for patience while votes are counted
Multiple polls show Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in a close race in the seven battleground states, including Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania. In those three states, election officials have explained what to expect – and not expect – for results on Election Day.
In Georgia, a new law requires the results of “all early votes and early accepted ballots” to be reported an hour after polls close, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told CBS News. The state allows election workers to begin counting mail-in ballots at 7 a.m. on Election Day.
“That's 70%, maybe even 75% of all the vote totals will be reported no later than 8 p.m. on election night,” said Raffensperger, who also pointed out that overseas ballots can be received until Nov. 8.
In 2020, President Joe Biden won Georgia by about 12,000 votes. The Associated Press didn’t call the state for Biden until Nov. 19, 2020, more than two weeks after polls closed. State officials certified the results on Nov. 20, 2020.
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Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said she expects unofficial results in her state to be available by the end of the day Nov. 6, the day after Election Day.
“But that said, we will always prioritize accuracy and security over efficiency,” Benson told CBS News. “Understanding how much people will want those results, we're still going to make sure the process is secure and accurate before we put anything out to the public.”
Biden won Michigan by about 154,000 votes in 2020. The AP called the race Nov. 4, 2020, a day after Election Day, and election officials certified Biden’s victory Nov. 23, 2020.
Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt told NPR it’s unlikely a winner will be known in the state on Election Day, in part because of a state law that doesn’t allow election workers to open mail-in ballots until that morning.
Schmidt also warned about the potential for false and misleading information to spread while votes are being counted.
“The message is please be patient,” Schmidt told CBS News. “Our counties are working night and day to count their voters' votes. They're doing so as quickly as they can, and with integrity.”
Biden won Pennsylvania by about 81,000 votes in 2020. The AP called the state for Biden on Nov. 7, 2020, four days after Election Day, and his victory was certified by state officials Nov. 24, 2020.
States often take days or weeks to certify election results
The growth in popularity of mail-in ballots has extended the time it takes media outlets to project winners of specific races in recent years. It isn’t unusual for state officials to spend days or weeks finalizing election results.
David Becker, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research, previously told USA TODAY that counting votes has never been finalized on Election Day in any state at any time in the country’s history.
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The results released to the public on Election Day are mostly from that day’s in-person voting, along with early in-person voting and preprocessed mail ballots.
"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," Becker said.
But states don’t typically certify election results, making them official, until days or weeks after Election Day.
"Some states certify the following week, some states take over three weeks," Becker said. "All results until then are unofficial and partial results."
The election process can take longer when the results are close. That 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 five weeks – the longest election in modern U.S. history, USA TODAY reported.
USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
PolitiFact and Lead Stories also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
CBS News, Oct. 20, Transcript: Jocelyn Benson on 'Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan'
USA TODAY, Nov. 7, 2022, Fact check: Counting votes routinely takes days after polls close, sometimes weeks
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: False claim lack of Election Day results indicates fraud | Fact check