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A thread about election results and counting, at least in Virginia 
The lack of knowledge about civics, as well as how elections work, is troubling. I have to say, though, that the confusion about elections is somewhat understandable.
The lack of knowledge about civics, as well as how elections work, is troubling. I have to say, though, that the confusion about elections is somewhat understandable.
Elections are not as simple as they used to be. There have been a great deal of changes in the past few decades that make them more than Election Day + some absentee votes.
Now there is early voting. In many states, but not all, voters can vote in person or by mail without providing an excuse. The by-mail ballots can take a lot of time to count, and if a state doesn't allow counting to start before Election Day, then results can be delayed.
The delay in results can be aggravated by the fact that some states allow the return of ballots after Election Day as long as they were mailed by Election Day.
After the 2000 election all states have some version of provisional ballots, which make sure voters can vote while we investigate whether they were qualified. This adds additional time post-Election Day, too. In my county we had 200+ provisionals this election.
Most of these were voters who had requested an absentee ballot and who showed up without the ballot we mailed to them. They have to vote provisionally to prevent double voting.
We also had 40 FWABs (Federal Write-in Absentee Ballots). These couldn't be processed until after the deadline for return of ballots at noon on November 6. The reason is that we can't count the ballot if the voter was issued a state ballot and that gets returned.
We have a complicated checklist we use to determine whether these can be counted. Our processing team that came in the Saturday after the election had to go through those to determine validity.
That processing team didn't go through those, though, until after they had reviewed the dozens of ballots that had a problem that might lead to their being rejected. Some of these ended up being counted after reviewing for compliance with absentee laws. 46 were rejected.
The reason for most of the rejections was failure to return the ballot in a security envelope or failure to provide information on the affidavit.
Most of this was stuff that just took place after the election. The Electoral Board had to review all of the provisionals as well as review the returns from each precinct for accuracy and completeness. If errors are found, they get corrected as a result of this review.
An example of a correction is where one candidate got 165 votes, and the machine indicated it should have been 156 votes (or vice versa; I can't remember).
The amount of checks and balances in the elections process in Virginia is amazing. Once someone participates in it, they realize that, while some things could be improved, transparency and accountability are built into the system.
Finally, one's vote is secret. We don't keep records on how voters voted and have no way to look that up.
