Elections Defined Video Series
This series of short videos features NCSL Director of Elections and Redistricting Wendy Underhill talking about some of the key steps of election administration you may not have heard of—from ballot curing to voter list maintenance to what it means to be a poll worker, and everything in between. View the complete series.
When polls close, it’s exciting to know who won and who lost. However, it takes time to count all the ballots.
So, on election night, the supposed results are projections made by the media. These projections balance all kinds of factors, including the number of counted ballots and the parts of the state that they came from to determine when the media is going to call a race. Of course, a closer race takes longer to call.
The key, though, is that the media does not determine who wins or loses. Their unofficial results have no legal effect. Voters, not media executives, are the real deciders.
Once all ballots are counted, and once election officials have crossed their T’s and dotted their I’s, that’s when the results stop being labeled unofficial and become official.
The time it takes for this process varies by state, depending on the specific processes and policies set by state law.
Ready for more election administration answers? View the complete series for info on the topics below. Still have questions? More details can be found on these and other topics through NCSL’s election resources.
- Ballot Duplication.
- Ballot Collecting.
- Ballot Curing.
- Provisional Ballots.
- Pre-Processing Ballots.
- Poll workers vs. Poll Watchers.
- Post-election Audits.
- Canvassing and Certification.
- Results Reporting.
- Voter ID.
- Voter Registration List Maintenance.