As I write, Americans are trudging to the polls to mark ovals on paper, touch screens, use ballot marking devices, and otherwise record their choices for president, Congress, state legislatures. state and a number of other offices and voting measures. Around 78 million Americans they voted before election day, many by mail. Different systems are used, depending on each state’s preferences, and rules vary as to when ballots can be counted and how they are recounted if necessary. If that sounds like it’s adding a layer of complexity to vote counting, you’re right. That’s why we’ll all probably have to be a little more patient before this year’s election results are finalized.

A two-week delay for votes in a key county

“The outcome of the presidential race could hinge on Maricopa County, and election officials warn it could take nearly two weeks to count all the votes,” Phoenix’s CBS affiliate. reported last week. “With more than 2.5 million active voters, Maricopa County is the third largest voting jurisdiction in the country and one of the most hotly contested areas in the race for the White House. The county expects it will take 10 to 13 days to count them all. votes, which is consistent with previous years.”

Arizona is a swing state that went for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020 less than 11,000 votes. So, with 2.5 million from the state 4.368 million voters in a county that has already been warned that ballot counting will take some time, we could all be waiting a while for some pretty important election results.

Or maybe Americans will have to wait for Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania or one of the other swing states. Even if the presidential contest is decided relatively quickly, control of Congress may remain up in the air while we await the outcome a few House races that are actually in the game.

Voting procedures vary from country to country

How votes are cast, processed and counted varies from state to state – and even between jurisdictions within some states. Conformable Verified votewhich promotes the “responsible use of technology in elections,” 69.9 percent of American voters live in jurisdictions that use hand-marked paper ballots. Another 25.1% use ballot marking devices that electronically present choices to voters and then print human-readable paper ballots that are counted. Five percent use electronic direct recording systems, which are completely digital, with the results stored in computer memory.

while 78 million ballots they were elected before election day, that doesn’t mean they’ve already been counted. Some states, including Arizona, register them as they arrive, conformable at the National Conference of State Legislatures, although the results must be kept secret under penalty of law. These ballots can be cast at early voting locations or by mail — particularly in California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont and Washington, where, Ballotpedia NOTESpostal ballots are the primary means of voting. However, in other states, including swing states like Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, counting cannot begin until Election Day. Early voting in those states makes it easier for voters, but not necessarily for poll workers.

Maricopa County’s delay, then, is not the result of a mountain of early ballots, but of a particularly long 2024 ballot and the laborious process of processing and verifying “early” ballots that are held until last minute and replays. on election day.

There may be a lot of those last-minute ballots, not so early, because the voting this year is daunting. North of Maricopa in Yavapai County, we counted 13 statewide ballot measures in addition to the various federal, state and local offices. We also have a local measure, as do other jurisdictions in the state. The What is on my ballot? the “pamphlet” looks like an old fashioned phone book.

“I thought maybe it would take a little time” to fill in, Sophia Tesch said The Washington Post about the Arizona ballot. “It took me 35 minutes.”

The long ballot is on two pages, which must be tabbed separately to be counted. The device may freeze if it is fed too quickly. That takes extra time and patience.

Mail-in ballots are easier to throw away than to count

Now imagine this scenario playing out across the country, especially with mail-in voting become more popular. While early voting from home makes life much easier for voters, especially when the ballot looks like a Scantron test form, it adds complexity on the receiving end.

“Counting mail-in ballots takes longer because the process involves additional layers of processing and verification, which in some states may not begin until Election Day,” Timeit’s Simone Shah he wrote in the period leading up to the elections. “The ballots themselves must be unsealed, and verification sometimes involves matching a signature or photo ID.”

In addition, some states, incl Nevadaaccept the ballots that are stamped until election day. This means that the ballots may not all be available to be counted by the end of the week. That shouldn’t add any extra excitement to what’s already a cliffhanger political season, right?

Stories can keep the fun going

Then, of course, there’s the fact that this presidential election is as close to a 50/50 race as you’ll ever see between political candidates, and some of the down-ballot races are just as close. Many states have automatic relate the laws if the vote total is within a tight margin (0.5 percent in Arizona and Pennsylvania). In other states, candidates can request recounts if the margin is close (0.5 percent in Georgia1 percent in North Carolina).

With partisan high boiling point voltages in the United States, we can assume that no one will miss an opportunity to call for recounts in any races where the votes are close, and the results may depend on the interpretation of contested ballots. This is especially likely given that confidence in electoral procedures is uncertain. About sixty percent of Americans “have a lot or a lot of confidence that ballots cast in presidential elections will be accurately counted in their state or by their local election officials.” conformable to AP-NORC. This drops to 48 percent for the national number.

That said, maybe the polls are wrong, and this election will be decided by such overwhelming margins that the number of delays in some areas won’t matter. Then the recounts will be completely meaningless. Clear victories could resolve questions about who wins, who loses, and who gets to hold office.

But chances are we’ll all have to wait a while to see how this election shakes out.