I voted yesterday... No Political statements just asking about the method you chose on casting your ballot.

[ronandannette]

Interesting thread but honestly somewhat unfathomable to those of us outside the US. Question: presuming everything goes exactly as planned with no extenuating circumstances, when will you know who won? Is it all wrapped up on election night (like ours is) or is there a period of days and weeks after the election to tabulate all the various forms of ballots?

 

[Moliphino]

Interesting thread but honestly somewhat unfathomable to those of us outside the US. Question: presuming everything goes exactly as planned with no extenuating circumstances, when will you know who won? Is it all wrapped up on election night (like ours is) or is there a period of days and weeks after the election to tabulate all the various forms of ballots?

It could be either one, depending on how close the race is.

 

[mousefan73]

I did absentee mail in from overseas. Voted using on online ballot after going through that process to get my access code. printed, signed and mailed it Oct. 2 from Germany. Got my email confirmation Sat that it has been received. Yeah!!!! Mail in absentee voting from overseas has been a major concern for many ex-pats. I’m in a Facebook group and that is the key concern that they get received in time. Due to Covid and other reasons international mail has been iffy the past half year. So unless you want to spend 60 bucks fed axing iMail in absentee voting from overseas has been a major concern for many ex-pats . Standard letters usually take 7 days. Mine took 22. .

 

[sam_gordon]

Interesting thread but honestly somewhat unfathomable to those of us outside the US. Question: presuming everything goes exactly as planned with no extenuating circumstances, when will you know who won? Is it all wrapped up on election night (like ours is) or is there a period of days and weeks after the election to tabulate all the various forms of ballots?

It's going to depend on each state. As I understand it, some states can (and will) start counting early, so they're keeping a running total (but not releasing it obviously), so on election day, they add in the in-person votes, and release all the numbers that evening.

I *THINK* some states aren't allowed to start counting or have decided not to start counting anything until election day. That might cause a delay. I do not have proof of this though.

 

[sam_gordon]

No. Its a problem with ballot drop offs, not mail ins.

No. Its a problem with idiots who think they can (and should) interfere with the voting process.

 

[wvjules]

Today is the day early voting starts in Maryland. I am going in a little bit to cast my provisional ballot (made a whoopsie on my mail in ballot). Right now the wait time for the 3 closest location to me are 40, 60 and 75 minutes. Luckily my employer has a charge code for voting so we don't have to use PTO.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Interesting thread but honestly somewhat unfathomable to those of us outside the US. Question: presuming everything goes exactly as planned with no extenuating circumstances, when will you know who won? Is it all wrapped up on election night (like ours is) or is there a period of days and weeks after the election to tabulate all the various forms of ballots?

A lot of times it's with hours of polls closing to a few days. This year the news has heavily covered do not expect results on Election Night/overnight both because of how many people they expect to vote and also the sheer amount of mail-in ballots. They've advised someone could be ahead but them mail-in ballots counted puts them behind, that was just an example of delayed results.

In my state mail-in ballots "must be postmarked by Tuesday, November 3, 2020 and received no later than Friday, November 6, 2020 by close of business." If the races/measures are close enough they will wait to count those later turned in ballots, provisional ballots won't be counted until November 11th according to at least my county.

 

[Jennasis]

No. Its a problem with idiots who think they can (and should) interfere with the voting process.

Well yes, that too.

 

[bcla]

Interesting thread but honestly somewhat unfathomable to those of us outside the US. Question: presuming everything goes exactly as planned with no extenuating circumstances, when will you know who won? Is it all wrapped up on election night (like ours is) or is there a period of days and weeks after the election to tabulate all the various forms of ballots?

Depends on the state. Nearly all in person voting these days is counted on-site immediately. Either a touchscreen machine that keeps a running total, or paper ballots go into a scanner that keeps a running total. Then once the polling place is done, the poll workers pull up the totals and report them. The machines and paper ballots are available for audits later. I’m pretty sure that the totals will be double checked, but there might be requirements for random audits recounting the paper ballots.

There are also write in votes. That can slow things down immensely.

I’d note this is different than how it worked even 10-20 years ago depending on where. I remember when ballots were just dropped into a ballot box loose and there was no counting equipment at the polling place. The ballots would need to be transported to a place to count them. That might take hours or perhaps overnight.

Mail-in voting is different in each state. This is where we’re likely to see delays, especially where there’s been unprecedented demand. Some states allow a deadline of a postmark by Election Day. Then there might be a deadline for when it has to be received. Others might require receipt by Election Day or a few where it has to be the day before. Some process them as they come in. A few process them starting Election Day or the day before. However, processing is not counting. Counting is generally fast because high speed machines are doing it. Processing is more labor intensive, including signature verification and checking on the condition of the ballots. Some ballots might be nonstandard and need to be transferred to a machine readable ballot, such as when someone uses weird marks (like check marks), or when an overseas absentee ballot is sent by FAX or email, or even regular mail. Those would be printed at home.

I expect most states will have nearly complete results in a few hours. Some of the states might take a few days because of their different rules. Those will have partial results, followed by updates as mailed in ballots get counted.

 

[bcla]

It's going to depend on each state. As I understand it, some states can (and will) start counting early, so they're keeping a running total (but not releasing it obviously), so on election day, they add in the in-person votes, and release all the numbers that evening.

I *THINK* some states aren't allowed to start counting or have decided not to start counting anything until election day. That might cause a delay. I do not have proof of this though.

The counting rules are always set by law. Some don’t allow the processing and counting of ballots until Election Day. So those ballots get counted as batches of ballots get processed. That could take days. A few do the processing for days before Election Day and will have their counting machines loaded ready for the set time to start counting.

It all seems pretty random because it is.

 

[EACarlson]

Interesting thread but honestly somewhat unfathomable to those of us outside the US. Question: presuming everything goes exactly as planned with no extenuating circumstances, when will you know who won? Is it all wrapped up on election night (like ours is) or is there a period of days and weeks after the election to tabulate all the various forms of ballots?

In my state, Wisconsin, we should know within a day or two at most. 45% of the total ballots cast in 2016 have been received as absentee ballots already. Starting at 0700 on Nov. 3rd the poll workers can start opening the envelopes and feeding the ballots into the counting machines. Only if it is incredibly close will the ballots rejected by the machine have to be hand counted.

Each state is allowed to determine how they want to run their elections, but there have been many lawsuits trying to change how that is done in both state and federal courts. In WI, it's gone back and forth a couple times when ballots have to be in to the polling places. State law says the ballots must be received by 2000 on Nov. 3rd, a lawsuit and preliminary injunction changed that to must be postmarked by Nov. 3rd but can be received up until Nov. 11th. Different court levels changed it a couple times, the federal appeals court ruled that state law rules. Unless the US Supreme Court decides to take the case and rule in the next week that is how it will be.

My wife and I both voted in person absentee this morning. Took me 25 minutes when the first opened, took her 15 minutes an hour later.

 

[jrmasm]

Right, and states that don't start counting until the polls close will have to scramble.

But we have to realize that election officials are bound by the law. They can't just make up their own rules. So if the state law says they can't count until the polls close, they have to abide by that.

"But...but...but...but, why didn't they change the state law to make this more streamlined???" Well, because nobody anticipated a pandemic in the middle of an election year!

The system they've had for years has worked, so nobody saw any need to change it. Many states have had minimal problems previously, and had no reason to think this year would be any different.

There was an attempt to allow pre canvassing in my state this year. It didn’t pass.

 

[JimMIA]

No. Its a problem with idiots who think they can (and should) interfere with the voting process.

I think it's a multi-faceted problem. Yes, there are morons and criminals who would like to interfere with voting -- but why enable them? Why set up unattended drop-boxes?

In my county, we have 33 early voting sites, and each one of those has an attended drop box. You go up and hand your sealed mail ballot to the poll worker. They check to be sure you haven't messed things up, and deposit the envelope (unopened) into the box. At the end of the day, the box is taken inside (most of our early voting sites are libraries), the ballots are removed and secured.

Facilitating mail voting and early voting ain't rocket science!

 

[sam_gordon]

I think it's a multi-faceted problem. Yes, there are morons and criminals who would like to interfere with voting -- but why enable them? Why set up unattended drop-boxes?

In my county, we have 33 early voting sites, and each one of those has an attended drop box. You go up and hand your sealed mail ballot to the poll worker. They check to be sure you haven't messed things up, and deposit the envelope (unopened) into the box. At the end of the day, the box is taken inside (most of our early voting sites are libraries), the ballots are removed and secured.

Facilitating mail voting and early voting ain't rocket science!

I still say it's a problem with the idiots. There's really no reason unattended drop boxes SHOULDN'T work.

 

[Moliphino]

I think it's a multi-faceted problem. Yes, there are morons and criminals who would like to interfere with voting -- but why enable them? Why set up unattended drop-boxes?

In my county, we have 33 early voting sites, and each one of those has an attended drop box. You go up and hand your sealed mail ballot to the poll worker. They check to be sure you haven't messed things up, and deposit the envelope (unopened) into the box. At the end of the day, the box is taken inside (most of our early voting sites are libraries), the ballots are removed and secured.

Facilitating mail voting and early voting ain't rocket science!

An unattended ballot drop box should be no different than an unattended USPS drop box, either were acceptable for submitting my mail in ballot. My drop box was at town hall, right next to the fire department. I hope nobody would be dumb enough to start a fire there.

 

[mousefan73]

What boggles most foreign people about the US elections how come election day is on a Tuesday. Most other countries have voting day on a Sunday where the majority of people have a day off. I don’t know is it a constitutional thing? Because if you think about it it really is stupid

 

[Minnesota!]

What State do you live in...Minnesota

Have you voted yet? method you choose to vote? We dropped off our completed ballots to city hall a few weeks ago. Website updated within a few days that our ballots had been received and counted. Easiest voting I have ever done. I don't mind standing in the lines at the polls, but I hate crowds PRE-Covid...my anxiety is horrible. I just wanted to avoid it all together at this point. Too much hate and division..

 

[EACarlson]

What boggles most foreign people about the US elections how come election day is on a Tuesday. Most other countries have voting day on a Sunday where the majority of people have a day off. I don’t know is it a constitutional thing? Because if you think about it it really is stupid

https://www.history.com/news/why-is-election-day-a-tuesday-in-november So as not to interfere with religious services or weekly markets in the largely agrarian society we had in the early years of our nation.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I think it's a multi-faceted problem. Yes, there are morons and criminals who would like to interfere with voting -- but why enable them? Why set up unattended drop-boxes?

In my county, we have 33 early voting sites, and each one of those has an attended drop box. You go up and hand your sealed mail ballot to the poll worker. They check to be sure you haven't messed things up, and deposit the envelope (unopened) into the box. At the end of the day, the box is taken inside (most of our early voting sites are libraries), the ballots are removed and secured.

Facilitating mail voting and early voting ain't rocket science!

Eh I don't see a problem with unattended drop boxes. I don't expect people to stand outside waiting 24hours/7 days a week from Oct 14th until November 3rd. If you didn't have someone doing that then you would have hours that you could turn in your ballot and well that just limits access that way. We already do that with specific times for in-person voting so I wouldn't like the idea of doing that with mailed ballots turned in by drop boxes. Mail-in ballots, if people are comfortable doing so, allows people who cannot realistically go vote in-person another avenue. If I was a person who couldn't (for whatever reason) make it to in-person voting because the times and days didn't work how would that help me if I had the same issue with mail-in ballots?

As far as checking to make sure you haven't messed it up well they can't do that in my area. There's a sealed privacy flap......for a reason. I wouldn't want them to unseal it right then and there. They stay sealed, and then are transported to a locked room where they are only opened when they are processing them.

 

[SaintsManiac]

What boggles most foreign people about the US elections how come election day is on a Tuesday. Most other countries have voting day on a Sunday where the majority of people have a day off. I don’t know is it a constitutional thing? Because if you think about it it really is stupid

It should be a national holiday. Period.