How Quickly Will Your Absentee Vote Be Counted? A State-by-State Timeline (NYT)

[eppur_se_muova]

By Nick Corasaniti and Denise LuOct. 13, 2020

A lot of voters are asking these questions right now: How quickly will ballots be counted in the presidential election? Which states will have results — and possibly a winner — on election night?

In a year when absentee ballots are surging, a lot depends on when officials first start what’s called pre-processing of ballots. This ranges from verifying signatures, opening envelopes and flattening ballots to get them ready for tabulation.
When mail and absentee ballots are pre-processed
Upon receipt

AZ

GA

MN

NV

AK

CO

DC

HI

ID

IL

IN

KS

MA

MT

NE

NJ

NY

SD

TN

UT

VA

WA
Before Election Day

FL

IA

MI

NH

NC

OH

AR

CA

CT

DE

KY

LA

ME

MD

MO

NM

ND

OK

OR

RI

SC

TX

VT

WV

WY
On Election Day

PA

WI

AL

MS

Key presidential battleground

Some states begin this work weeks in advance and others are only allowed to begin on Election Day. States that begin early may have a lot more results counted by election night.

Because of the surge in mail ballots that need to be counted, if the presidential race is close, the winner may not be known on election night. More than 80.5 million absentee ballots have already been requested or sent to voters nationwide.
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more, including properly formatted table: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/10/13/us/politics/when-votes-counted.html?utm_source=pocket-newtab

[beachbumbob]

1. My money is on Biden being announced the winner as soon as California polls close on Nov 3rd

the landslide will be huge

[lagomorph777]

2. Looks like almost all states are starting processing or counting early.

PA will be the wild card.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. PA has all of 20 EC votes.

Somehow, even though their final and total results will take a while, I really doubt the EC vote will be anywhere that close.

[Thekaspervote]

3. Thx..bookmarking

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. Since only four states, with a total of 45 EC votes,

don't start counting the absentee and early votes until election day itself, I'm going to say that the fears of the outcome really being known is vastly overstated.

Even the idea that those who vote election day itself will be overwhelmingly voting for Trump, is meaningless, given that all but four states start counting well before election day itself, and those returns will start being reported as soon as the polls close in various states.

[Nictuku]

6. Very informative article, thank you for posting

It is worth clicking on the link. I found out that California accepts ballots all the way until Nov 20!!! No wonder it takes so long for California results. I also learned that they do start processing early in my state, which is a very good thing.

I also want to say that I dropped off my ballot last Friday at the official ballot box drop off (it was in the official election materials) and on the following Tuesday (because I signed up with ballottrax), I received notification that my ballot was received and will be counted!!! Woot!!!!!