How the 7 Swing States Will Count Votes and Post Election Results

The 2024 presidential election on Nov. 5 seemingly hinges on the end result in seven battleground states.

Battlegrounds—additionally referred to as swing or purple states—are the place assist for Democratic and Republican candidates has been break up in current presidential elections. Present swing states are Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia.

Most different states constantly break for a similar political get together and aren’t thought of aggressive.

The battleground states account for 93 of the nation’s 538 electoral votes. The winner wants not less than 270 electoral votes—greater than half—to win.

How lengthy it would take for Individuals to know the leads to the seven swing states relies on the person states’ legal guidelines.

State Election Legal guidelines Differ

Underneath the U.S. Structure, elections are performed by every state.

Unofficial outcomes usually are reported quickly after polls shut, generally inside hours. Information organizations usually announce presumed winners of nationwide races inside hours or by the early morning of the subsequent day.

However the official end result takes longer for a number of causes.

State legal guidelines range concerning when to depend ballots which are mailed in, dropped off, or solid throughout in-person early voting.

Although they go by completely different names, all seven battleground states permit some sort of absentee or mail-in voting. And all provide early in-person voting, which is now underway all through most states.

Some state legal guidelines permit for early ballots to be tallied earlier than Election Day. Others prohibit counting earlier than polls shut.

Mailed ballots obtained after Election Day nonetheless will probably be counted in some states, so long as they have been postmarked by Nov. 5. The deadline for receiving them varies by state.

Verifying Voters

Counting ballots not solid in individual can take extra time.

Some states—Arizona, Nevada, and Michigan—require a voter’s signature on a mail-in poll to be verified.

In Georgia, officers should confirm that the motive force’s license quantity or state-issued identification quantity included on the returned poll matches what’s on file for the voter.

In Wisconsin, an grownup witness should signal the poll being returned, verifying the voter crammed out his or her personal poll.

In North Carolina, a voter utilizing an absentee poll should signal a certificates witnessed by a notary or two adults who additionally present their addresses.

Provisional ballots can complicate the method additional.

A provisional poll normally is used when a voter exhibits up at a precinct to vote and his or her identify doesn’t seem on the checklist of registered voters.

After being marked, a provisional poll is slipped right into a secrecy envelope and stored separate from the common poll field. After the polls shut, that poll will probably be counted provided that the voter is confirmed as eligible to vote.

However even in any case ballots have been tallied, the outcomes nonetheless aren’t official.

Every state has a canvass interval and certification course of wherein officers formally certify their state’s outcomes, which normally takes place round three weeks after Election Day.

Candidate Joe Biden flipped Arizona in his favor in 2020, besting incumbent Trump by fewer than 10,500 votes or 0.3 %.

The deadline in Arizona to register to vote on this election cycle was Oct. 7. In-person early voting started two days later and continued by 7 p.m. on Nov. 1.

Voters on the state’s Lively Early Voting Checklist routinely obtain a poll by mail. These may be returned by mail or at drop packing containers on the state’s polling locations.

Counties can start tabulating these ballots after early voting begins. Early ballots that are available on Election Day will probably be tabulated within the days instantly following the election.

However earlier than any are counted, election officers should examine the signature on the poll envelope to the voter’s signature on file.

Army members and different abroad residents can solid their ballots by fax or by importing to a safe system maintained by the secretary of state. Ballots should be obtained by 7 p.m. on Election Day.

Anybody who makes an attempt to vote on Election Day has “the precise to solid a poll,” in keeping with the Arizona secretary of state. However provisional ballots solely will probably be counted if the county recorder can confirm the voter’s eligibility.

On Election Day, polling places within the 15 Arizona counties shut at 7 p.m. Anybody in line at the moment is allowed to vote.

After polls shut, ballots are both tabulated on the polls or at a county’s central counting location.

Maricopa County is residence to about 2.4 million registered voters—greater than 60 % of the state’s voters.

Within the aftermath of the 2020 contest, Trump and different Republicans alleged that Arizona’s election was rife with voter fraud. In the end, lawsuits towards Arizona and Maricopa County officers have been dismissed. In 2020, county officers licensed the outcomes 17 days after Election Day.

Election Day voters in Maricopa County normally make up 10 to fifteen % of the vote within the county. To vote in individual, Arizonans should current identification, get a brand new poll printed, fill it out on the voting location, and feed it right into a tabulator.

After polls shut, guidelines direct bipartisan workers of Maricopa County to place reminiscence drives from tabulators into tamper-proof packages and take them to MCTEC. There, employees confirm they’ve been stored safe and cargo election outcomes into the election server, periodically releasing up to date race outcomes.

State statute requires that bipartisan appointees validate the accuracy of the vote-tabulation system by a random hand-count audit of 1 % of early ballots and a couple of % of votes solid at a voting heart.

Canvassing begins on Nov. 11. Canvassing is the method of accounting for each poll solid. It ensures every legitimate vote is included within the official outcomes.

In the course of the canvass, election officers resolve discrepancies and test for accuracy earlier than certifying the outcomes as ultimate.

If a county hand-count audit is held, every acknowledged get together on the poll appoints representatives to take part. County officers have till Nov. 21 to certify their outcomes.

A statewide canvass will probably be performed on Nov. 25. The deadline for Arizona to certify election outcomes is Dec. 2.

Nevada

Nevada has six electoral votes and almost 2.4 million registered voters.

All lively registered voters have been despatched ballots by mail, except they opted out. And most Nevadans historically vote early or by absentee poll.

In 2020, a bit greater than 77 % of the state’s voters solid ballots. Solely about 11 % voted on Election Day. The remaining voted early in individual or returned absentee ballots.

To be counted in Nevada, mailed ballots should be postmarked by Election Day and obtained by the county no later than 4 days later, on Nov. 9.

Early in-person voting in Nevada started on Oct. 19 and runs by Nov. 1. On Day 1 of early voting, 42,237 Nevadans solid ballots.

Tallies of these early ballots can’t be launched earlier than polls shut at 7 p.m. on Election Day.

Underneath Nevada legislation, “compromising the secrecy of the poll by releasing outcomes early is against the law,” in keeping with Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar.

Even on Election Day, eligible residents can register to vote and solid a poll within the state.

Within the hopes of rushing up outcomes, new steerage from Aguilar instructs election officers to start out tabulating early voting returns and mail ballots at 8 a.m. on Election Day.

By 6 p.m., county clerks and registrars are to supply their first election outcomes to the secretary of state’s workplace for verification.

“Voters deserve obtainable outcomes on Election Night time; releasing outcomes sooner will improve transparency, assist us fight misinformation, and alleviate stress on election officers … [and] this modification is a win for our total state.”

Clark County—residence to Las Vegas and 71 % of Nevada voters—has 132 polling and drop field places.

Ballots are tabulated on voting units and saved on detachable media which are taken by two election board members to a receiving heart or counting place, in keeping with Nevada legislation.

“If sensible,” the legislation stipulates, these election board “members should be of various political events.”

Members of most people are allowed to look at the supply of these voting parts in sealed containers and watch vote-counting.

Nevada’s digital voting system isn’t related to a community or the Web, and it may well’t join wirelessly. All parts undergo a collection of checks and audits earlier than they can be utilized.

And parts have a sequence of custody, with “tamper evident” safety seals. Entry to them is restricted to approved personnel.

Metropolis or county clerks supervise the operation of the central counting locations.

As quickly because the returns from all of the precincts and districts have been obtained by the board of county commissioners, the board shall meet and canvass the returns.

Counties have as much as 10 days to certify elections.

In 2020, the Nevada GOP sued, citing claims of fraud. So the election was not formally finalized till the state’s Supreme Court docket licensed the outcomes on Nov. 24.

This 12 months, Nevada’s deadline to certify its election outcomes is Nov. 26, in keeping with the U.S. Election Help Fee.

As of Oct. 29, greater than 1.1 million absentee ballots had been despatched out, and a bit greater than 511,000 had been returned.

The ballots should be returned by mail or in individual at a poll drop-off location by 8 p.m. on Nov. 5, when polls shut.

Absentee ballots are counted by being put by a tabulator at polling locations on Election Day. To be counted, the envelope should embrace a signature from the voter together with one from a witness and the witness’s tackle.

In addition they may be processed at what’s referred to as a “central depend” location, frequent in bigger municipalities, corresponding to Milwaukee.

To vote on Election Day, Wisconsin residents should present a photograph ID that meets state requirements when checking in at a polling place. State legislation doesn’t authorize or require a voter’s signature to be verified.

At every polling place, there usually are seven election inspectors led by a chief inspector who’s coordinated by the municipal clerk. Municipal clerks can also appoint tabulators to assist depend votes.

The group of inspectors usually contains Democrats and Republicans. Underneath state legislation, the get together that garnered probably the most votes within the territory coated by the polling place throughout non-presidential election years “is entitled to 1 extra inspector than the get together receiving the subsequent largest variety of votes at every polling place.”

Wisconsin has a three-step course of for certifying elections.

After polls shut and ballots have been entered into the machines for voting, ballot employees convene their “board of native canvassers.” Anybody, together with the media, could observe and file the proceedings from a chosen space.

Municipal clerks transmit outcomes to Wisconsin’s 72 county clerks, who’re required to publish unofficial outcomes on their web sites. Wisconsin doesn’t have a statewide system for reporting unofficial outcomes on Election Night time, and there isn’t a central official web site the place outcomes will probably be reported.

“The municipality, or the county, on behalf of the municipality, is answerable for poll retention post-Election Day,” a spokesperson for the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Fee informed The Epoch Occasions. “The 2 entities would wish to work collectively to find out which possibility is finest.”

Counties have 14 days to transmit their licensed outcomes to the state.

This 12 months, that’s Nov. 19.

The state makes use of all paper ballots, that are fed right into a tabulator in every precinct to calculate the outcomes, Macomb County Clerk Anthony Forlini informed The Epoch Occasions.

Early in-person voting is open at regional websites inside every county for at least 9 days and for as much as 28 days ending on Nov. 3.

Counties have been allowed to start out the early-voting interval as late as Oct. 26.

Early votes are tabulated when solid, Forlini mentioned.

Absentee ballots are obtained and saved securely by township clerks, he mentioned.

To be counted, mailed absentee ballots should be obtained by the voter’s native clerk by 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Ballots returned by army and abroad voters should be postmarked by Nov. 5 and obtained inside six days after Election Day.

Cities and townships can present written discover to the secretary of state and start processing and tabulating absentee ballots early. However totaling the vote depend and producing, printing or reporting election outcomes isn’t allowed earlier than 8 p.m. on Election Day.

Polls shut at 8 p.m. on Election Day.

At the moment, precinct officers—together with not less than two Republicans and two Democrats—will canvass the election to make sure that the variety of ballots solid matches the variety of voters who obtained a poll, Forlini mentioned.

One is directed to the county clerk. One goes to a probate decide. And one stays with the native clerk, in keeping with Forlini.

Ballots are positioned in sealed containers, and the serial variety of the seal is recorded within the poll guide. Ballots stay with the native clerk, Forlini mentioned.

Precinct outcomes are then delivered to the county clerk.

Some counties, corresponding to Macomb, ship them in individual. Others, together with Oakland, achieve this by modem, utilizing an air-gap laptop that has not been related to the web.

However Michigan’s outcomes stay unofficial till the Board of State Canvassers audits them and certifies the election.

That county-level canvass course of begins the day after Election Day and should be accomplished inside two weeks. This 12 months, the deadline is Nov. 19.

The Board of State Canvassers assembly is scheduled for 10 a.m. on Nov. 22. The assembly will probably be livestreamed.

Underneath Michigan legislation, the state should canvass and certify the election outcomes no later than the twentieth day after the election, which falls on Nov. 25 this 12 months.

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania has 19 electoral votes and a bit greater than 9 million registered voters.

Oct. 21 was the final day to register to vote in Pennsylvania. In 2020, barely greater than 76 % of registered voters solid a poll within the presidential election.

The interval for “early on-demand voting” differs by county. The deadline to use for a “no-excuse mail-in” or absentee poll was Oct. 29 at 5 p.m. Some places accepting these ballots in individual had already closed earlier than Oct. 29.

The deadline to return a mail-in or absentee poll is 8 p.m. on Nov. 5. Pennsylvania legislation requires voters to return their very own ballots. A voter with a incapacity could use a type to designate another person to ship his or her poll.

In contrast to many different states, Pennsylvania legislation prevents counties from opening any ballots till 7 a.m. on Election Day, when voting begins at greater than 9,100 polling locations.

On the morning of Election Day, Pennsylvania ballot employees can start counting mail-in ballots.

They will start counting in-person ballots when polls shut at 8 p.m. Ballot employees will proceed counting into the subsequent day, in keeping with the Pennsylvania Division of State.

Ballot watchers from political events with candidates on the poll can observe the counting. The places for vote tabulation range by county.

In Philadelphia County, residence to greater than 1.1 million voters, poll tabulation will happen on the Philadelphia Metropolis Commissioners Workplace & Election Warehouse, a spokesman for the Philadelphia Metropolis Fee informed The Epoch Occasions in an electronic mail. The Philadelphia County Board of Elections, led by three metropolis commissioners, will depend the ballots, he mentioned.

Every county should submit the preliminary outcomes to Pennsylvania’s Division of State by 3 a.m. on Nov. 6.

The county boards will meet to canvass the election outcomes by 9 a.m. on Nov. 8. Throughout that course of, they will reconcile outcomes to make sure the quantity of people that voted in every precinct matches the variety of ballots.

Election officers additionally will test provisional ballots and course of these which are eligible to be counted. By 5 p.m. on Nov. 12, counties should submit their outcomes to the Division of State. Army-overseas ballots should be delivered by that point.

By Nov. 25, counties should certify their election outcomes. After reviewing them, Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt will certify election outcomes statewide.

In-person early voting began in all 100 counties on Oct. 17 and ended on Nov. 2 at 3 p.m.

On the primary day, a file 353,166 ballots have been accepted at polling websites statewide, in keeping with preliminary North Carolina State Board of Elections knowledge.

That surpassed the earlier first-day file set in 2020 by 1.3 %.

By Election Day in 2020, when the state went for Trump, about 65 % of North Carolinians had solid their ballots.

That was up from 62 % of voters casting early ballots in 2016. Trump received the state’s electoral school votes that 12 months, too.

This 12 months, the state’s official voter registration deadline was Oct. 11. However any voters offering acceptable photograph identification will probably be allowed to register and vote throughout early voting.

North Carolina absentee voting has been adjusted since Hurricane Helene ravaged the western a part of the state on Sept. 28. Now, voters from the 25 counties hit hardest by Helene’s flooding and mudslides can return absentee ballots to any early voting website throughout early voting.

These counties are Alexander, Alleghany, Ashe, Avery, Buncombe, Burke, Caldwell, Catawba, Clay, Cleveland, Gaston, Haywood, Henderson, Jackson, Lincoln, Macon, Madison, McDowell, Mitchell, Polk, Rutherford, Transylvania, Watauga, Wilkes, and Yancey.

On Election Day, voters with out the required photograph ID nonetheless can vote by filling out a type explaining why they don’t have identification, or by casting a provisional poll and exhibiting legitimate identification at their county board of elections workplace by 5 p.m. on Nov. 14.

However outcomes nonetheless will probably be unofficial.

The day after the election, bipartisan groups at each county board of elections will conduct an open-to-the-public hand-count audit to make sure voting gear recorded voters’ decisions precisely, in keeping with the state board of elections.

The state board of elections chooses two teams of ballots to depend from every county, both from particular person precincts or early voting websites, or all of the absentee ballots solid in a county. The state tells every county which teams to depend. Examined within the audit is at all times the highest contest on the poll—this 12 months, the presidential race.

Additionally counted are absentee by-mail ballots postmarked on or earlier than Nov. 5 and people obtained from army members serving abroad. They’ll arrive as late as 5 p.m. on Nov. 14.

The deadline to register to vote was Oct. 7.

Early voting started on Oct. 15 and ended on Nov. 1. And Day 1 smashed data, in keeping with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

Greater than 310,000 solid ballots, he mentioned, up from 136,739 on the primary day of voting within the 2020 presidential election and up from 134,962 on Day 1 of voting within the 2022 midterms.

On Election Day, polls will probably be open within the state from 7 a.m. till 7 p.m.

Voters not capable of present legitimate identification to ballot employees can vote by provisional poll and could have three days to resolve questions of eligibility. Any voters in line by 7 p.m. nonetheless will probably be allowed to vote.

Absentee ballots are verified in Georgia by elections employees as they’re obtained. Info on every poll is cross-checked with an official photograph ID on file with the state, in keeping with a spokesman for the Georgia Secretary of State’s workplace.

On Election Day, elections employees will start tabulating early and absentee ballots at 7 a.m., the spokesman mentioned. Absentee ballots should be obtained by 7 p.m. on Nov. 5 to be counted, he mentioned.

All of the voting knowledge—the scanner reminiscence card, the paper ballots, the voting machine entry playing cards voters use to function voting machines, and digital ballot books with voter data—are positioned in sealed containers.

These are delivered to the county election superintendent by the ballot supervisor and not less than one different ballot employee or legislation enforcement officer.

The principles say that the counting “shall not stop” till the outcomes are all tabulated, barring an emergency. The outcomes are then reported to the secretary of state.

In 2020 a water leak, initially reported as a burst pipe, led to a counting delay of a number of hours at Atlanta’s State Farm Enviornment polling station in Fulton County.

After the election, paper ballots are saved by the clerk of the county superior court docket with different county data. If there is no such thing as a contest to the election they could be destroyed after two years.

State guidelines require every county election board to satisfy by 3 p.m. the Friday after the election, this 12 months on Nov. 8, to conduct a evaluate of precinct returns.

The election should be licensed by 5 p.m. on the Monday after Election Day. This 12 months, that Monday is Veterans Day. So the deadline will probably be prolonged to the subsequent day, Nov. 12.

However even the certification deadline is the topic of a authorized battle in Georgia.

Jack Phillips contributed to this report.