Election officials from some of the battleground states in the midterm elections are warning that results may take longer to count than expected.
As Election Day arrived closer, reports of election and voter misinformation, as well as violence and intimidation toward both voters and poll workers, have risen considerably. To head off disputes, officials in several states have already issued statements to citizens letting them know it is a possibility, and in some areas a probability, that results will not be finalized on Tuesday night.
Delayed results are expected in states that extremely limit or do not allow the pre-processing of mail-in and absentee ballots, such as Pennsylvania and Michigan, according to Politico. Officials will not be able to get a head start on counting ballots until the polls close.
REPORTS OF VOTER INTIMIDATION ACROSS COUNTRY AS ELECTION DAY NEARS
Michigan lawmakers allowed for two days of pre-processing, but only a few jurisdictions took advantage of the opportunity because it was allowed so late in the year, Politico reported. Pennsylvania does not allow any pre-processing of mail ballots.
“I’d like to remind everyone — voters, candidates, members of the media, and the general public — that we will not have unofficial results in every race on election night,” Leigh Chapman, Pennsylvania’s acting secretary of the commonwealth, told reporters last week. “The bottom line is, election results will take several days.”
The timeline of when mail-in ballots need to be in the hands of election officials varies by state and could affect the release of results as well. Most states require ballots to be in the election officials’ possession by the time polls close, regardless of what date they were put in the mail.
But some states, such as California, will allow ballots that are postmarked by Election Day but are received by officials afterward.
Some officials are worried that a lack of results can lead to the spread of misinformation, similar to the 2020 election, as well as violence and intimidation aimed toward poll workers who are working to count the votes in the aftermath.
“The longer it takes to count those mail-in ballots, the more of an opportunity there is for misinformation, to cast doubts on the results before all the votes are counted,” Al Schmidt, a former Republican elections official in Philadelphia, said.
Craig Latimer, supervisor of elections in Hillsborough County and former president of the Florida association of elections officials, said that in 2018, the state, which previously championed itself on its speedy election process, had to initiate several big recounts due to narrow margins.
He said now, with the country so polarized and evenly divided, more races may be decided by these narrow margins.
Florida has not experienced some of the voter intimidation incidents that states such as North Carolina and Arizona have reported, he noted.
“We don’t have open carry in Florida, which I’m grateful for as both a former law enforcement officer and now an elections official,” Latimer said. “So we’re not seeing some of the situations that are occurring around the country.”
Neal Kelley, former registrar of voters in Orange County, California, said that he was “definitely” concerned about post-election threats and violence, more so than the incidents that have already made headlines.
“We’re in the middle of early voting right now across the country, and it’s fairly quiet. There’s pockets of issues here and there,” he said. “But I think what remains to be seen is what are the outcomes on election night? And then what is the response post-election?”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Republicans are widely expected to gain control of the House, while the race for the Senate is more hotly contested.
