Why some key states' election results will take longer than others

This anomaly of an election year has surely primed many voters with the same sense of dread expressed by former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who wrote in his Bush v. Gore dissent in part that “we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s Presidential election.”

But God willing, we will know — it’s only a matter of time. The standing barrier to a swift election night result is the large increase of mail-in ballots and early in-person ballots in states that do not typically have to manage such high quantities of those ballots. The various states’ vote-canvassing laws will be a determining factor in how much time it will take for the election results to be clear.