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I'm not sure who needs to hear this, but here goes... final election results are NEVER known on Election Night. All the votes are NEVER counted by and on Election Night.
SOMETIMES, and not always, can the broadcast networks and the AP call presidential elections on Election Night. That's because they have ENOUGH of the vote to know which direction the state is going or, in the AP's case, if the other candidate doesn't have a path left to win.
The AP didn't call the Trump-Clinton race until 2:29 a.m. Wednesday morning in 2016. And at THAT POINT, Trump was still leading in the popular vote. I wrote a post at 3:06 a.m. ET that said Clinton was likely to win the popular vote. And I UNDERESTIMATED by how much by 1.2m votes
CA's polls don't close until 11 p.m. ET. Their vote counting tends to be slow and lag on bc it has so many people. CA is already 10.6m in early vote, 74% of its 14.2m 2016 vote total. So it's almost assuredly going to top that when all is counted
Biden is also likely to win the national popular vote again. Think about the biggest states -- Biden will likely win BIG margins in CA, NY, NJ, IL. Which are Trump's biggest states he'll win by double-digits? Maybe IN, KY, TN?
This year, turnout is going to be record-breaking by all indications. Early voting is already at 65% of the 2016 total and going to keep climbing.
Some states, like NC, FL, AZ are expected to have much of their results known at poll closing time, because they can begin processing mail-in ballots ahead of Election Day. But lots of other states can't, which may lead to a slower-than-usual total vote count in many places.
And there is nothing nefarious in that. States canvass the votes to make sure they're legally cast. In close races, if a campaign has a problem with a ballot cast, they can contest them. But every state's recount rules are different.
Lawyers for both campaigns know what the laws are, and they know -- despite what you may hear from the president or surrogates -- that votes take longer than on Election Day to be counted. There's no room for conspiracy in elections. The vote count WILL CHANGE AND THAT'S NORMAL.
In fact, each state has laws for when they need to certify results, and none is on Election Day.
For example:
CA stretches all the way to Dec. 11
MD/MO/NJ Dec. 8
TX Dec. 3
NV/WI Dec. 1
AZ/CO/IA/MT/NE Nov. 30
And on. Here's the full list of dates: https://ballotpedia.org/How_and_when_are_election_results_finalized%3F_(2020)
For example:
CA stretches all the way to Dec. 11
MD/MO/NJ Dec. 8
TX Dec. 3
NV/WI Dec. 1
AZ/CO/IA/MT/NE Nov. 30
And on. Here's the full list of dates: https://ballotpedia.org/How_and_when_are_election_results_finalized%3F_(2020)
So don't listen to the noise. It's just spin. Follow the law, and let's hope everyone who is legally allowed to vote has their vote counted and have an accurate result through this Election Season NOT Election Day.
