By Emily Baker (JMU ’21, POSC), Madelyn Ward (JMU ’22, Economics & Public Policy), and Jamie Panko (JMU ’23, POSC)
We have never had election results on Election Night. What we see in the media are projections of outcomes. This year, depending on how the electoral college plays out, election results could take longer because so many Americans have voted early and by absentee. Each state has unique rules and laws about when ballots can be counted and reported. But, we’d rather have an accurate result than a fast one. According to expert analysts at FiveThirtyEight, we could have a “pretty good idea of where things are headed on election night, even if no candidate is able to clinch 270 electoral votes until later in the week.”
What Happens to Ballots After You Vote?
Virginia is allowed to pre-process early ballots and look for issues as they come in rather than having to start that process on Election Day. Because Virginia will allow absentee ballots to be received until Nov. 6, some Virginia localities may not have final counts until the week of Nov. 9.
If you voted absentee by mail, your absentee ballot is scanned by voting machines at your local registrar. The machine will tabulate results of absentee ballots on Election Day.
After a person fills out a ballot in-person on Election Day, ballots are scanned electronically and kept in a secure box. Counting will be done at each polling location. The Virginia Department of Elections has instructed localities to count as many ballots as they can up until 11 p.m. on Election Night.
After 11.p.m, localities will start reporting results for all the early voting and absentee voting.
How Many Ballots Counted on Election Night?
Here is a table showing which states are expected to have how many ballots counted on Election Night. Battleground states indicated in bold text.
| Nearly All Ballots Counted | Most, But Not All | Only Some |
| Alabama
Arkansas Delaware Florida Hawaii Idaho Missouri Montana Nebraska New Hampshire Oklahoma Oregon South Carolina Tennessee Vermont Wyoming |
Arizona
Colorado Georgia Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi New Mexico North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Rhode Island South Dakota Texas Virginia West Virginia Wisconsin |
Alaska
California Connecticut District of Columbia Maryland Nevada New Jersey New York Pennsylvania Utah Washington |
How Do Some Key Battleground States Compare to Virginia?
Different states have different laws and rules about counting ballots.
| Pennsylvania | Wisconsin | Michigan | Virginia |
| PA laws do not allow “pre-canvassing,” or processing ballots before Election Day. Because of this, some are worried that the ballot processing will be highly-delayed due to the sheer numbers of absentee voters this year. | A last-minute Supreme Court case ruled that ballots received after election day would not be counted, meaning that some absentee ballots in Wisconsin may not be counted this year. People are encouraged to drop off their ballots rather than mail them.
Despite not being able to process absentee ballots until Election Day (which originally led to fears of a delayed count), many counties say they will be able to count everything on election night. |
The earliest absentee ballots can be processed is Nov. 2, which likely does not leave enough time to count them all by election night. The secretary of state estimates that it could take until Friday, Nov. 6, for all ballots to be counted and a winner to be declared.
“Poll watchers” are being discouraged by Michigan legislation which now states that concealed weapons are not allowed at voting sites. This was passed in hope of deterring violence against voters. |
Most votes should be counted on election night. Localities can process absentee ballots as soon as they receive them and most localities should be able to report all or most ballots that arrive before Nov. 3. Because the state has a deadline of Nov. 6 to receive absentee mail ballots, they won’t fully be counted until the end of the week.
Virginia protocol now requires the local officials to contact voters with mistakes on their absentee ballots, allowing them another chance to fill out a valid ballot. This is the first year that errors are corrected before Election Day, and the first time that people are allowed to fix their ballots to allow them to count. |
2020 Election Litigation
Leading up to the 2020 elections, there are over 260 lawsuits in the courts about who can vote, when ballots can be cast and by when they must be counted.
Listen to Democracy Matters with SCOTUSblog reporter and Supreme Court expert Amy L. Howe about the litigation arms race, the role of the Supreme Court in voting rights and election law, how trust in political institutions might be undermined by all the legal challenges and their timing this year, how the Supreme Court can ensure that the election litigation process isn’t hijacked for partisan political aims, and how the confirmation Amy Coney Barrett to be the 115th U.S. Supreme Court justice could impact elections. Howe also shares how Zoom has impacted coverage of the Supreme Court.
Here are some other cases we think are important.
Moore v. Circosta
North Carolina’s absentee ballot system, where the ballots had to be received by Nov. 6th, was overruled. Now, absentee ballots in North Carolina can be received as late as nine days after Election Day.
Washington v. Trump
The “leave mail behind” rule by the USPS, in which carriers were told to only make one trip for their routes, was found to slow down mail carrying and to threaten election integrity. US District Court in East DC ruled that all ballots be treated as first-class mail to prevent voter disenfranchisement.
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