Explainer: Why Our Elections Take Longer to Decide Than Other Countries
The duration of elections in the United States, from campaigning to declaration of results, can be lengthy compared to other democracies. In the US, campaigns often begin over a year before Election Day, as campaign length is not limited by law. By comparison, other countries tend to have shorter campaigns due to legal limits. Japan is among the strictest, allowing only 12 days of campaigning. In Canada, campaigns can last between 36 days to 11 weeks. In India, candidates are required to stop campaigning 48 hours before the election begins.
After Election Day in the US, depending on the state, election results may take multiple days to count and declare.
What’s taking so long?
The primary reason is the increased use of mail ballots and the time it takes to count them.
Approximately 40 countries around the world offer a vote by mail option, especially in Europe and Asia. However, the US is unique in its decentralized management of elections. Many other countries, including Canada, use overarching regulations to govern national elections rather than decentralizing election administration.
However, in the US, each state has a distinct system and laws that govern vote counting, leading to a staggered state-wise declaration of results. Mail ballots must typically be postmarked by Election Day, but depending on state laws, the timeline on which they are counted can vary.
Increased use of mail ballots
Since 2020, mail has become a widely used method of voting. During the pandemic, some states introduced comprehensive vote-at-home systems that enable all eligible voters to receive a ballot by mail. Due to Covid-19, only 30.5% of voters voted in person in 2020, while 43.1% of the electorate voted by mail. The number of voters using mail ballots is expected to remain high in 2022.
Differing state regulations around counting
State laws differ on the handling of mail ballots prior to Election Day. Most states allow for some degree of pre-processing of mail ballots. This might include checking the ballot for voter eligibility or scanning them into tabulators before Election Day to assist and speed up the final count. However, in a handful of states including Michigan and Wisconsin, mail ballots cannot be opened before Election Day.
Where it is allowed, pre-processing can speed up the count considerably. It allows election workers time to check and validate ballots and ready them for tabulation. It also significantly decreases the load on workers after Election Day. In states where pre-processing is not allowed, verification and tabulation of mail ballots is a significant addition to the volume of work presented on Election Day. This leads to a longer wait for results and can create space for doubt or mistrust in the election process and/or results.
Grace periods
In most states, mail ballots must be postmarked by Election Day, but can often take days to arrive and be counted. Many states allow grace periods, a specific number of days after Election Day within which a ballot must arrive to be counted. In some states, like Illinois, this can be up to 14 days after the election.
Counting close races
Where a race is closely contested, the time it takes to count mail ballots is exacerbated by the need to check and verify every single vote, to ensure an accurate result.
Additionally, close races often face recounts. In almost all states, a losing candidate may request a recount. If the race is very close, almost half of all states will send it into an automatic recount. In Georgia, there is an additional layer to vote counting. If neither candidate wins over 50% of the vote, the race moves into a runoff election. In a runoff election, voters are allowed to rank candidates in order of preference, and votes are counted until a single candidate wins at least 50% of the vote. This type of voting can take a longer time to count, which further delays the election result.
Our elections are longer than in most countries, but this is unlikely to change without alterations to state policies and procedures. There is little reason to suspect fraud in the vote-counting process. Reviews of the 2020 election showed that voter fraud is rare and that multiple checks and balances exist to arrest incidences of fraud at every stage of the election process. While slow to emerge, final election results can be considered accurate.
References and Further Reading:
Alex Seitz-Wald. NBC News. Why we might see a delayed result on election night. 8 November 2022
Chad Day and Christine Mai-Duc. Wall Street Journal. Why It Takes Longer To Know Election Results In Some States. 15 November 2022.
Danielle Kurtzleben. NPR. Why Are U.S. Elections So Much Longer Than Other Countries'? 21 October 2015. Accessed 20 November 2022.
Ed Pilkington and Sam Levine. The Guardian. Why is the midterm vote count taking so long in some US states? 10 November 2022.
Election Assistance Commission. Election Administration and Voting Survey 2020 Comprehensive Report. Accessed 24 November 2022.
Election Commission of India. Model Code of Conduct for the Guidance of Political Parties and Candidates. Accessed 27 November 2022.
Elliott Davis Jr. US News. U.S. Election Integrity Compares Poorly to Other Democracies. 7 October 2020.
Glenn Kessler. The Washington Post. The truth about election fraud: It’s rare. 1 November 2022.
Grace Gordon, Oliver Hymen-Metzger, Christopher Thomas, and Kylee Zabel. Bipartisan Policy Center. Ballot Pre-processing Policies Explained. 7 September 2022.
Laurence Nordon and Derek Tilser. Brennan Center for Justice. Why Does It Take So Long To Count Mail Ballots In Key States? Blame Legislatures. 7 November 2022.
National Conference of State Legislatures. Ranked-Choice Voting. 11 June 2022.
National Conference of State Legislatures. Receipt and Postmark Deadlines for Absentee/Mail Ballots. Accessed 26 November 2022.
Reuters. Fact Check-Re-examining how and why voter fraud is exceedingly rare in the U.S. ahead of the 2022 midterms. 3 June 2022.
Sharon Schumacher and Aidan Connaughton. Pew Research Center. From voter registration to mail-in ballots, how do countries around the world run their elections? 30 October 2020.
Vote at Home. Frequently Asked Questions. Accessed 23 November 2022.
