![]() While some states are legally allowed to process and/or count mail ballots before Election Day, therefore speeding up timelines, others-including some battleground states-are not, even with the increase in mail ballots. ![]() That's going to slow things down as well." Some state can’t process ballots before Election Day. But COVID-19 will also come into play behind-the-scenes: "All of the things that you do prior to the election, during the election, after the election, whether it's the way poll workers issue a voter a ballot, to how those ballots are scanned, to how voting equipment's placed, to how in the back office you're processing mail ballots-now we all have to social distance. Some jurisdictions have received private grants and funding that have allowed them to buy the equipment they need, according to Morrell, and some are hiring temporary workers to help speed up the process. ![]() "It's just slow for states that are new to this and haven't had that opportunity to change laws or policies or procedures to help them provide more efficient results reporting or more efficient processing." Mail ballots go through several steps before they can be counted, including being reviewed by election officials, per the Washington Post. "You're still going to see pretty prompt results in the states that have have a history of voting by mail," she added. "We have states and jurisdictions who have never handled this volume of mail ballots before," Morrell said. Then COVID-19 happened, and as voters needed a way to vote safely and account for a lack of polling locations and poll workers, there was an unprecedented shift to early voting, and more specifically, voting by mail. Every Question You Have About Mail Voting AnsweredĪlternatively, in states that have already transitioned to a majority of mail-in votes, jurisdictions have invested in the appropriate technology, changed their laws, and adapted procedures so that they, too, are able to have most results reported on election night.So when exactly can we expect the results of the presidential election to be announced-and what should we consider when figuring out a timeline? Below, talked with Jennifer Morrell, a former election official, partner at The Elections Group, and a member of the National Task Force on Election Crises, to find out. history,” and a predicted “roughly 80 million mail ballots will flood election offices this fall, more than double the number that were returned in 2016.” These mail-in ballots take longer to process, and you don't have to look far to see how this could affect the election: This year, primaries in some states took days, if not weeks, to announce a winner. ![]() According to the New York Times, “at least three-quarters of all American voters will be eligible to receive a ballot in the mail for the 2020 election-the most in U.S. This election cycle, voting patterns have drastically changed as constituents try to avoid crowded polling places and stay socially distant. However, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020 is shaping up to be a bit different. For decades in the United States, Americans have gotten used to finding out the results of the presidential election relatively soon after polls closed on Election Day (which is November 3rd this year, ICYMI). This has been, among many things, a year of readjusting expectations.
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