In the US, certification of election results may take up to 30 days — TIME
In the United States, tens of millions of voters cast ballots for candidates on the day of the midterm elections, but determining party control of each chamber of Congress may take days or even weeks. Official certification of results in all states may take up to 30 days, TIME reports.
Media outlets may project some races as early as Tuesday evening, but such announcements are not official results. In closely contested districts, a winner may not be determined until the verification and counting of all votes are complete.
How votes are counted
After polls close, states verify ballots cast early in person, on Election Day, by mail and using provisional ballots. In some states, votes are counted directly at polling stations, while in others ballots are delivered to county counting centers, where vote-counting machines are used.
Provisional ballots are used when a voter needs to further confirm their eligibility to vote — for example, their identity. Such verification may extend the process. Another 14 states and Washington, D.C., count ballots postmarked no later than Election Day if they arrive within the established post-election deadline.
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Why results are delayed
The speed of the count depends on geography, the amount of equipment, workers and counting locations. In Alaska, delays may occur because of vast distances: ballots are sometimes flown to Anchorage for processing. In California, the process also usually takes longer because of the state's scale.
Alaska and Maine use ranked-choice voting, under which voters rank candidates in order of preference. If no candidate receives a majority in the first round, the candidate with the least support is eliminated and another round of counting is conducted.
In Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, the law does not allow mail ballots to be prepared for scanning before Election Day. This means election authorities must process hundreds of thousands of such ballots at the same time as polling stations operate. Experts interviewed by TIME emphasize that delays in official results are not a sign of fraud, which, according to research and government audits, occurs extremely rarely.
