Election results give us a sense of what is happening in our country and our democracy. We can track trends, see how close a race is, and learn what the winner will mean for our everyday lives. But election results aren’t official until all ballots have been counted and certified. And that process takes days and sometimes weeks after polls have closed.
After the polls close, voters’ ballots are securely transferred to election officials where they are counted and made public. This process can take days or even weeks after Election Day and may include counting military, early in-person, and mail ballots. News outlets provide updates as the vote counts come in. However, no one knows for sure how many votes have been cast until all of the ballots are counted and certified by local and state officials.
While the specifics are different for every news outlet, they all use similar data sources to project and predict the results of each race. These data sources can include exit polls, local polling information, and patterns from past elections. News outlets may also compare their own projections to the actual final results once all of the ballots have been counted and verified.
Some version of a canvass happens in every county, state and election in the United States to verify that all votes were counted properly. This includes adding in the results of any verified provisional ballots. And in some races that remain close, there may be a recount. Recount rules vary from state to state but often involve re-examination and re-tabulation of ballots by hand or machine.
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