Days after Americans cast their votes, the final results of the 2022 midterm elections remain unclear and authorities warn that the final verdict at the polls may take weeks to be known.
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The delays are due to a number of factors, including the narrow margins between the candidates and the fact that Georgia – a key battleground for the Senate – is headed for a runoff election.
Another reason for the delays is the decentralized way in which elections are organized in the US, in which states have different rules about how and when mail-in votes are counted.
The issue of delays has been politically contentious since the 2020 presidential election, when then-President Donald Trump attempted to claim victory the next morning while votes were still being counted, declaring the recount a “fraud” and a “disgraceful disgrace.” “.
This week, Trump has again questioned the transparency and reliability of the process, through his social network Truth Social, where he crossed out the elections in several states of “disaster for voter integrity” and accused his opponents of “trying to steal the election with bad machines and delays.”
However, before the polls opened, election officials across the country warned that delays are a normal and expected part of the American elections.
In a speech on November 2, President Joe Biden urged citizens to be “patient” while ballots are counted “in a lawful and orderly manner.”
Let’s see why certified results are coming in slowly.
Vote by mail and early
Although final figures are not yet available, preliminary data from the US Elections Project organization suggests that more than 112.34 million Americans – about 47% of voters – participated in this year’s mid-term elections. .
Although the turnout was lower than that recorded in the previous 2018 mid-term elections, in some states appears to have reached all-time highs.
In this process 42 million people paid in advance and by mail before last Tuesday, November 8, exceeding the 39.1 million that they did in 2018. This is one of the factors that is delaying the final calculations.
Different states have different regulations on how mail-in ballots are processed.
Pennsylvania, for example, is one of 8 states that only allowed election officials start counting ballots on election day.
In Maryland, by contrast, state regulations stipulate that ballot processing cannot begin until 10:00 local time the morning after the election.
For its part, 16 states and Washington DC they do not allow the count to begin until the polls close on Election Day, while 23 other states allow the count to begin before the polls close. Only 10 states allow ballots to be counted before Election Day: November 8, in this case.
19 states also have a grace period that allows ballots to be counted later, as long as they are mailed in before Election Day.
In California, for example, the envelopes with the votes can continue to be received for one more week.
In Arizona, on the other hand, they must arrive before Election Day, although officials have 20 days to count them.
Recounts and second laps
Delays can also be due to recounts, which can take place where the gaps between candidates are extremely narrow or, in many states, when requested by one of the applicants.
However, the process varies slightly by state, with 41 states and Washington DC allowing you to request recounts. 22 states have automatic counts.
In Georgia – where there is a close race between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker – winning candidates must receive at least 50% of the vote.
With a third contender in the race, neither of the 2 candidates reached the required threshold and this triggered the call for a second round, which will take place on December 6. This scenario is a repeat of the 2020 election in the state.
“At the end of the day, everyone wants to know that we have honest and fair elections, and we do,” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Nov. 9. “I ask voters to go out and vote one last time.”
Where do the delays occur?
While vote counts continue to take place across the country, the delays have been most apparent in Arizona, where a large majority of voters chose to vote by mail.
Before the elections, the authorities of that state warned that the process could take up to 12 days. Voters also have 5 days to correct their signature if requested by officials.
“As much as we all want to see the winner come election night in those close races, that’s just not going to happen,” Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is also running for governor, said in October.
“These things take time“, he added.
As of Wednesday, November 9, hundreds of thousands of ballots remained unaccounted for, including about 400,000 in Maricopa County and approximately 159,000 in Pima Countywhere officials said a final result is not expected before November 14 or 15.
After reported problems with the machines on Election Day, Maricopa County has promised that ballots “will be counted safely and accurately.”
Although the problems were “frustrating” and “inconvenient,” officials said the final count would not be affected.
US media assure that for this friday night the first results of Maricopa could be produced.
Trump-backed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has repeatedly called the system into question. In an election night speech at her campaign headquarters, she suggested that “incompetence” was preventing “honest elections.”
“The system we have now does not work”he added.
The vote count also continues in Nevada, where tens of thousands of votes remain to be counted in Clark County (Las Vegas). Representatives from both political parties have asked voters for patience.
Are there delays in other countries?
Although in other countries there are delays in the electoral results, the US stands out for the duration of the same, largely due to its decentralized system.
The results of the November 1 elections in Israel, for example, were announced on November 3. Instead, those in the second round of the general elections in Brazil on October 30 they met the same day.
Of European countries, Sweden is one where high voter turnout and narrow margins often drag out results by several days. Preliminary results of the country’s 9/11 general election were not available until September 15, with official results following about a week later.
In 2019, the results of the Indonesian presidential elections on April 17 took more than a month to announce: they were known on May 21. The counting of votes in the country’s more than 800,000 polling stations is done largely by hand and in full view of the public.
Source: Elcomercio
I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.