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The election ends when every legal vote is counted. It’s entirely possible news outlets will be unable to project a winner night of because of the extremely high level of absentee voting. This is how the process is supposed to work! https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1323036813720723458
Technically no election night results are official! They have to be certified and votes are ALWAYS counted after E-Day. This is very normal!
I’m more than happy to answer questions or concerns people have about this process! Tweet me or DM if you don’t want to tweet.
(And, of course, technically the election *doesn’t* end when every legal vote is counted. It ends when Congress certifies the vote from the Electoral College in January! We just don’t think about it that way)
Let’s take OK for example (which will be much easier to project than other states)
Usually, data scientists at news outlets can project the end result, in part, by studying which precincts have reported and what their margins are. They know which precincts tend to vote similarly
Usually, data scientists at news outlets can project the end result, in part, by studying which precincts have reported and what their margins are. They know which precincts tend to vote similarly
But this year, a way way bigger chunk of the vote is coming in early and by mail, so it’s not sorted into the precinct each voter usually votes in. This creates a challenge because they’ll have to wait to see how that early vote shakes out and precincts won’t be *as* helpful!
In Oklahoma, mail votes can be — and are — processed before Election Day and then quickly counted after the polls close. Early in-person votes are already done before Election Day. Plus, those mail ballots MUST arrive by 7 p.m. on Election Day
Now, imagine if Oklahoma didn’t allow absentee ballots to be processed before Election Day at 7. And let’s also say Oklahoma allowed ballots to *arrive* after Election Day as long as they’re *postmarked* by E-Day. And let’s say in-person earlies couldn’t be counted until then too
These would be perfectly fine changes! But you can imagine why these changes would cause the process of counting them to take longer.
This is part of the challenge. Some states just take longer to report, and in this case that’s PA (and others)
This is part of the challenge. Some states just take longer to report, and in this case that’s PA (and others)
