Why won’t we have official results on election night?

Once the polls close on election night, people around the country start tuning in to news coverage of election results. But results have never been official on election night.

News outlets begin reporting unofficial results after polls close on election night. But no results are official until they are certified, which is often days or even weeks later. This is because election workers take careful steps in the days after the election to make sure that the vote count is accurate, thorough, and transparent.

Counting votes carefully and accurately takes time. Differences in policies and resources between different places—even within the same state—mean that election workers in different places will likely finish their initial counts at different times.

In every place, counting continues until election workers have counted all valid ballots. This includes provisional ballots, which are typically set aside so that they can be counted later after further checks. Election workers must also count valid mail ballots that arrive on Election Day or mail ballots that were postmarked by Election Day and arrive a few days later. In these states, election workers must wait for the mail ballot receipt deadline to make sure they’ve received every valid vote, then carefully validate each mail ballot before counting.

Even if all ballots are received, verified, and counted on election night, those initial vote counts are still unofficial until they have been canvassed and certified. During the canvass, election officials double-check vote counts and procedures to make sure results are accurate and complete. This careful, thorough review takes days or weeks to ensure that election officials have time to canvass all the required election materials.  Once the canvass is complete, election officials must certify the results to confirm that the election results are complete. It is only at this point that results become official.

For additional information:

• Center for Election Innovation & Research, “How Election Results Coverage Really Works”
• Center for Election Innovation & Research, “What Happens After We Vote”
• Bipartisan Policy Center, “The Results You See on Election Night are Always Unofficial”