The U.S. might not be able to declare a new president on election night, explained

Americans have taken to using mail-in ballots in record numbers this year.

Andrew Koay | November 04, 2020, 03:28 PM

By the end of today (Nov. 4 in Singapore) we might not know who the next U.S. President is.

In fact, it could take days before there's a clear result in some states.

That's the reality of conducting such a large-scale election during the Covid-19 pandemic which has seen millions of Americans voting by mail.

Here's why:

Mail-in ballots need to be processed before they are counted

According to CNBC, most states require mail-in ballots to be processed first before they are counted.

Processing varies from state to state, and typically involves checking signatures on the ballots, verifying photocopies of identification documents, or scanning ballots but not tabulating them.

NPR reported that while some states started processing their ballots weeks ago, laws in a handful of states mean that processing can only begin on election day itself.

Important battleground states such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin only started processing ballots today.

Mail-in ballots will take a long time to count

In addition, the laws in 36 states and the district of Columbia require election officials to only begin counting mail-in ballots on election day.

According to AP, several states did not have a well-established system in place to process mail-in ballots before this year.

All these will inevitably lead to delays with the record number of mail-in ballots seen in 2020.

Democrats likely to mail-in, Republicans likely to vote in person

Further complicating the matter, AP reported that mail-in ballots are more likely to be used by supporters of Joe Biden, while President Donald Trump has encouraged his supporters to vote in-person.

This is likely to lead to significant shifts in the vote, depending on when the mail-in ballots are added to the tally.

For example, The New York Times reports that officials in Pennsylvania and Michigan — two states where Trump currently holds a lead — expect most of the votes to be counted by Nov. 6.

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