It’s most unlikely that voters will know the end result of this yr’s presidential race on Nov. 5, Election Day.
It might take days after polls shut earlier than the outcomes turn out to be clear and weeks earlier than they’re official.
The identical is true for management of the U.S. Home and Senate and for different shut contests and native measures on the poll.
So what are you able to anticipate to see within the coming days and weeks?
In 2020, it was 4 days after Election Day earlier than a winner was declared primarily based on unofficial projections. The uncertainty led to unfounded allegations of fraud and the defeated candidate denouncing the method, deceptive voters.
Election specialists have warned the identical factor might occur once more this yr.
Ballots solid by voters on Election Day are tabulated comparatively shortly, normally by machine, however even these outcomes must be double-checked.
Correct vote counting takes time, say elections officers, particularly when it includes mail ballots. Then there are the expected authorized challenges, required audits and recounts that may additionally prolong the interval it takes to find out the end result.
The method requires some persistence on the a part of voters. What may appear to be delays are a part of the conventional course of and never an indication that one thing’s gone incorrect within the system.
With days to go earlier than Election Day, and early voting breaking data, Bexar County officers mentioned they don’t seem to be anticipating any delays in counting the 2024 basic election ballots.
Right here’s the way it ought to go, in keeping with the Bexar County Elections Administration.
Polling websites shut at 7 p.m. on Election Day. Ballot employees then observe a closing course of to assemble all of the votes and report back to a central counting station to ship the outcomes. If there are voters in line at closing time, that might delay the beginning of this course of.
As outcomes are acquired within the elections division, officers replace the depend periodically all through the night and into the evening till all polls have reported their outcomes.
Ballots solid in particular person by voters on Election Day are tabulated comparatively shortly, by machine, however even these outcomes must be double-checked. Mail ballots can take longer to depend.
On the shut of the election, all votes — together with early ballots, mail-in ballots and people solid on Election Day — are intently examined. This contains provisional ballots by voters not licensed earlier than Election Day.
A non-partisan canvass board, a separate part from the elections division, critiques the votes, in search of the chain of custody on all ballots, each written and digital, guaranteeing that polling judges adopted all the principles.
The board additionally reconciles the depend of voters and ballots for every precinct, ensuring the full variety of ballots solid equals the variety of voters who solid these ballots.
All of those outcomes are compiled right into a poll report, or canvass.
Outcomes solely turn out to be last and official after the post-election canvass is accomplished and elections officers attest that the outcomes are correct.
The certification deadline in Bexar County is Nov. 19.
Normally, a neighborhood race will be decided on election evening if the variety of “vote distinction” is considerably better for one candidate, in keeping with native elections officers.
After the final basic election, the elections division accomplished its depend at about midnight in any case the outcomes have been reported and audits have been accomplished. Even then, outcomes have been marked “unofficial.”
In some states, together with the battleground states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, election officers are prohibited from counting mail ballots earlier than Election Day.
In Bexar County, mail ballots will be counted beginning Nov. 3 if the poll board has verified the ballots.
As soon as the poll board completes its work, it then arms over the eligible ballots for counting to the central depend workers for tabulating by machine.
Ballots mailed to army servicemembers complicate the depend of mail-in as a result of, whereas they should be postmarked by Election Day, there’s a grace interval of as much as six days after. If cleared by the poll board, these ballots additionally should be vetted and counted.
Voters who lack the required ID or their names are lacking from the rolls are allowed to solid provisional ballots, and given a number of days after Election Day to deal with these issues.
Provisional ballots are researched swiftly within the elections division in order that they are often introduced to the poll board when it reconvenes to course of late mail and army ballots.
The San Antonio Report group of reporters and photographers might be monitoring Bexar County election outcomes all through election evening and within the following days.
The San Antonio Report makes use of Related Press information in addition to Bexar County and Texas Secretary of State elections information in its outcomes reporting. The AP follows a set protocol for naming winners in an election.
Earlier than you go to the polls, take a look at the Report’s 2024 Voter Information right here.
