Waves of election outcomes will start coming in Tuesday night time after polls shut all through the nation, however in lots of key states it could take some time to know who has gained — and for much longer to get official, licensed outcomes.
There are a variety of causes it may well take longer for ballots to be counted in some states, together with the rise of mail-in voting, an possibility taken by almost one-third of voters nationwide throughout the 2022 midterm elections, in accordance with the MIT Election Lab. Some states enable mail-in ballots to be counted earlier than Election Day, whereas others don’t enable ballot staff to start out counting these ballots till in-person voting has come to an finish.
CBS Information considers seven states to be battleground states within the 2024 presidential election. This is a breakdown of these states’ guidelines round official poll counts and certification.
Arizona
Polls shut in Arizona at 7 p.m. native time (9 p.m. ET).
Arizona has allowed voting by mail for over 20 years, and roughly 80% of voters within the state vote by mail. Poll processing and tallying within the state can start when the ballots are obtained by election staff, however outcomes might not be launched earlier than all precincts have reported or one hour after the polls shut on Election Day, whichever is sooner. Releasing data earlier is a felony in Arizona.
College of Arizona professor Christopher Weber, who leads the Arizona Voter Mission, mentioned it could possibly be almost two weeks earlier than each vote is tallied within the state’s most populous county.
“The polls are actually shut in Arizona, and Maricopa [County] is anticipating 10 to 13 days to depend all votes,” Weber mentioned. “I – like others – anticipate delays. Although we might have predictions beforehand, it is actually tough to say. I do not keep in mind a time during which polling was so shut.”
County elections officers are answerable for the counting of ballots in federal, state and county elections, in accordance with the state elections web site. Early and provisional ballots first endure signature verification at a county recorder’s workplace, and counties can start tabulating votes as soon as early voting has begun. Most early ballots will probably be counted earlier than Election Day, whereas these which can be obtained on Election Day will probably be tabulated within the days instantly afterward.
An automated recount is triggered if the margin of the votes between two candidates is 0.5 share factors or fewer. Recounts might not be requested in Arizona.
Since 2020, the state has been the epicenter of a marketing campaign amongst Trump supporters to undermine belief within the nation’s election techniques, main elections officers within the state’s largest county to erect a veritable fortress to defend the middle the place votes are counted.
Georgia
Polls shut in Georgia at 7 p.m. ET.
Absentee poll voting in Georgia plummeted after the 2020 election, when greater than 1.3 million residents availed themselves of that possibility. Throughout the 2022 midterm elections, that determine was beneath 300,000, a determine advocates blamed on a controversial 2021 legislation that lowered entry to poll drop bins, elevated restrictions on mailed ballots and launched different guidelines like banning food and drinks distribution to voters in line by non-poll staff.
That laws was amongst a string of modifications applied within the final 4 years by the state’s Republican-dominated authorities. In September, Georgia’s State Election Board authorised a requirement that the entire variety of ballots be counted by hand after machines run their tallies. However that and different lately adopted guidelines had been blocked by Georgia judges who concluded they had been adopted too near Election Day.
Emory College professor Andra Gillespie mentioned if the race is shut, as soon as once more it could take time for it to grow to be clear who’s gained.
“On the whole, I wish to put together folks for the likelihood that it could take a few days to depend, and simply because it could take a few days, that does not imply individuals are manipulating the system,” Gillespie mentioned.
Georgia legislation requires that the vote be licensed “not later than 5:00 P.M. on the Monday following” the election, however since this 12 months that Monday falls on Nov. 11, Veterans Day, that deadline has been moved to the next day, Tuesday, Nov. 12.
The deadline for both candidate to request a recount is 2 days later, Thursday, Nov. 14. In Georgia, a dropping candidate might petition for a recount when outcomes are inside 0.5% of complete votes forged for the workplace.
Michigan
The final polls shut in Michigan at 9 p.m. ET. (Whereas polling locations in a lot of the state are within the japanese time zone and shut at 8 p.m., some western counties are on central time.)
About 42% of Michigan voters in 2022, 1.9 million, forged absentee ballots, down from 59% within the 2020 presidential election, in accordance with native information web site MLive.com.
Oakland College professor David Dulio mentioned it may be laborious to foretell when the state’s winner will probably be obvious, as a result of “elections in Michigan are very decentralized.”
“Our elections are run by 1,600 totally different native clerks who all should do all of that work after which ship it up the chain. That has the potential to gradual issues down,” Dulio mentioned. He added that the state’s largest metropolis, Detroit, “is notoriously gradual,” and its third largest metropolis, Warren, is not going to be benefiting from a comparatively new state legislation permitting clerks to pre-process absentee ballots as much as eight days earlier than Election Day.
County boards of canvassers have as much as 14 days after the election to finish their official counts, that are then turned over to a state board. The Secretary of the Board of State Canvassers should announce a winner by Nov. 25.
Within the occasion of a detailed race — with the 2 candidates separated by fewer than 25,000 votes — Michigan legislation encourages the state board to expedite its canvass “as quickly as practicable.”
If the candidates are inside 2,000 votes, an automated recount is triggered, nevertheless it have to be accomplished inside 30 days of the election.
Nevada
Polls shut in Nevada at 7 p.m. PT (10 p.m. ET).
Starting in 2022, Nevada turned one in every of eight states to conduct all-mail elections, during which each citizen is delivered a vote-by-mail poll with a pre-paid postage, although in-person voting at polling areas can also be allowed.
The state’s board of county commissioners is required to finish county-level canvasses by Nov. 15, which is 10 days after the election.
Sondra Cosgrove, a professor on the School of Southern Nevada who runs the nonprofit Vote Nevada, mentioned it should not take fairly that lengthy to know who’s gained.
“We’re assuming we are going to know by November 9,” Cosgrove mentioned.
Both candidate can demand a recount by Nov. 18, and that recount should start inside a day and be accomplished inside 5 days, Nov. 24 on the newest. That is as a result of on the fourth Tuesday of the month — Nov. 26 — the secretary of state is required to fulfill with Nevada’s Supreme Courtroom justices to conduct a statewide canvass. The governor then certifies the election.
North Carolina
Polls shut in North Carolina at 7:30 p.m. ET.
This 12 months, each turnout and poll processing could possibly be impacted by the destruction of Hurricane Helene. The storm wreaked havoc throughout huge swaths of the western half of the state in late September, displacing residents and destroying infrastructure, together with polling areas.
The North Carolina State Board of Elections authorised emergency measures on Oct. 7 with the purpose of bettering entry to voting for residents of 13 counties affected by the storm.
County election boards are required by state legislation in North Carolina to fulfill at 11 a.m. on Nov. 15 to finish their canvases. The State Board of Elections is required to fulfill on the Tuesday three weeks after the election, Nov. 26. If there are not any protests to the outcomes, that board should subject a certification of the election six days later.
A compulsory recount is triggered if the 2 candidates are separated by lower than half a %, and one of many candidates formally requests to have the votes counted once more. That request have to be made by midday on Nov. 17, two days after the county-level canvass.
Pennsylvania
Polls shut in Pennsylvania at 8 p.m. ET.
Underneath Pennsylvania legislation, counties can’t start counting mail-in and absentee ballots till 7 a.m. on Election Day. In 2020, that was the start of a laborious course of to log greater than 2.7 million votes returned by mail. Full returns are processed starting at 9 a.m. on the third day after the election, or Nov. 8 this 12 months.
The state, considered by many as a vital must-win for each candidates, was beset by lawsuits in 2020 — most of which had been dismissed or dropped — as Trump and his allies sought to stymie his rising deficit within the hours and days after polls closed and ballots had been counted.
This 12 months, Pennsylvania’s Supreme Courtroom in August issued an order expediting election-related circumstances. The order shortened the window during which a decrease court docket determination will be appealed, from 10 days to 3.
College of Pennsylvania professor Marc Meredith mentioned the overwhelming majority of ballots will probably be counted comparatively rapidly.
“We’ll get our first vote reviews from many counties fairly rapidly after polls shut. These will typically be all the mail ballots that individuals had been in a position to get by means of by then,” Meredith mentioned. “Almost all Election Day votes ought to largely be reported by early Wednesday morning.”
But when the race is as shut as anticipated, it may hinge on votes which can be slower to tally.
“Provisional ballots sometimes are reported out in smaller counties on Thursday by means of Monday within the bigger counties,” Meredith mentioned.
A recount and recanvass is routinely triggered within the state if the unofficial election returns, due by Nov. 12, present the candidates separated by lower than 0.5%. The recount can be required to be accomplished by Nov. 26.
Wisconsin
Polls shut in Wisconsin at 8 p.m. CT (9 p.m. ET).
Barry Burden, Director of the College of Wisconsin’s Elections Analysis Heart, mentioned, “sometimes 2 to 2 ½ hours after polls shut, we begin to get a fairly good image of the state,” however he famous Milwaukee takes longer.
“It is the most important metropolis, and it has probably the most ballots, and it additionally counts absentee ballots at a central location,” Burden mentioned. “That’ll be after midnight, 1 (a.m.) or 2 a.m.”
Most city and metropolis clerks in Wisconsin are required to ship tallies to their county clerks by 4 p.m. the day after the election, or by 4 p.m. the following day if the municipality makes use of a municipal board of absentee poll canvassers to canvass absentee ballots.
And a county board of canvassers has till Nov. 19 to ship licensed vote statements to the Wisconsin Elections Fee. The chair of that fee is required to certify the election by Dec. 1, in accordance with state legislation.
After the ultimate county is delivered its outcomes to the fee, a candidate can search a recount if the race is inside 1%.
When polls shut in different states
(All occasions native)
- Alabama: 7 p.m.
- Alaska: 8 p.m.
- Arkansas: 7:30 p.m.
- California: 8 p.m.
- Colorado: 7 p.m.
- Connecticut: 8 p.m.
- Delaware: 8 p.m.
- District of Columbia: 8 p.m.
- Florida: 7 p.m.
- Hawaii: 7 p.m.
- Idaho: 8 p.m.
- Illinois: 7 p.m.
- Indiana: 6 p.m.
- Iowa: 8 p.m.
- Kansas: 7 p.m.
- Kentucky: 6 p.m.
- Louisiana: 8 p.m.
- Maine: 8 p.m.
- Maryland: 8 p.m.
- Massachusetts: 8 p.m.
- Minnesota: 8 p.m.
- Mississippi: 7 p.m.
- Missouri: 7 p.m.
- Montana: 8 p.m.
- Nebraska: 8 p.m. within the central time zone portion of the state, 7 p.m. within the mountain time zone.
- New Hampshire: 7 p.m., although native municipalities are allowed to remain open later.
- New Jersey: 8 p.m.
- New Mexico: 7 p.m.
- New York: 9 p.m.
- North Dakota: Between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. relying on location.
- Ohio: 7:30 p.m.
- Oklahoma: 7 p.m.
- Oregon: 8 p.m.
- Rhode Island: 8 p.m.
- South Carolina: 7 p.m.
- South Dakota: 7 p.m.
- Tennessee: 8 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. CT.
- Texas: 7 p.m.
- Utah: 8 p.m.
- Vermont: 7 p.m.
- Virginia: 7 p.m.
- Washington: 8 p.m.
- West Virginia: 7:30 p.m.
- Wyoming: 7 p.m.
