Not knowing the winner on election night is perfectly normal

The process of counting every vote in Pennsylvania takes days, and sometimes weeks — not hours. Relax, it just means democracy is working properly. It’s not a sign of voter fraud.

It’s 11 p.m. on election night. TV pundits are breathlessly trying to make sense of early voting returns from Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground state in the presidential election with 19 electoral votes. Your text thread is blowing up, with everyone wondering why the final results from Pennsylvania haven’t been announced.

Relax, everyone. 

Sure, it would be great to fall asleep on election night knowing who is going to be the next president, and who will be representing Pennsylvanians in Washington and Harrisburg. But no state reports final results on election night, and the winner of the presidential election hasn’t been known before midnight in four of the past six elections (2000, 2004, 2016, 2020). Yes, media outlets routinely “call” races on election night when there appears to be a wide and seemingly insurmountable margin between candidates, but they are basing their calls on unofficial results.

The process of counting every ballot to determine the official result takes days, not hours. And, since 2024 is a presidential election, there will be millions of ballots to count, both in person and via mail ballot. For reference, nearly 7 million Pennsylvanians voted in the 2020 presidential election.

How does the process of counting votes work in Pennsylvania?

More than 2.6 million Pennsylvanians voted by mail in 2020. The pandemic undoubtedly prompted many to vote by mail rather than in person. But given that you don’t need a reason to vote by mail in Pennsylvania, and that you can also cast your mail ballot early at your county election office, many Pennsylvanians are exercising their option to vote by mail ballot again this year. As of Oct. 24, nearly 1.9 million mail ballots had been requested, with more than 1.1 million of those ballots already returned, according to the Pennsylvania Department of State.

State law does not permit counties to begin opening these ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day. So, right when county election officials can begin to remove mail ballots from the envelopes and prepare them to be scanned, they have to begin running the more than 9,000 polling places across the state. That’s a lot on their plate, all at once. And, per the state election code, counties may not even begin to record and publish mail ballot results until after the polls close at 8 p.m. on Election Day.

After the initial rounds of unofficial vote tallies are recorded and published, county canvass boards continue the elections work. These boards must meet no later than 9 a.m. on the Friday after Election Day to continue canvassing and counting through the eighth day after the election.

These officials ensure that any unofficial results reported on election night were accurate. They also sign off on provisional ballots — ballots that are cast when it’s unclear if the voter is in the correct polling place or when a voter who applied for a mail ballot decides to vote in person instead, but doesn’t have their mail ballot to surrender.

What steps are taken to make sure ballot counting is conducted fairly and accurately?

During every step in the process — in-person voting at the polls, pre-canvassing and canvassing of mail ballots, and adjudication of provisional ballots — representatives selected by each candidate and political party may be present and observe the process to ensure the integrity of the vote count.

In light of Donald Trump’s disproven claims of mail ballot fraud in Pennsylvania in 2020, it’s important to note that ballots always arrive and are always counted after Election Day. Whether it’s absentee ballots from military personnel overseas, ballots postmarked by Election Day that arrive after, or provisional ballots, there is nothing fraudulent about votes being counted after election night and there never has been. 

When should we expect the final election results?

The final election result may not be known for days, or possibly weeks, after Election Day.

But that doesn’t mean there’s a problem. Quite the contrary actually. Instead, a delay simply means that democracy is working properly and that election officials are taking their time to ensure that every vote is counted. 

You can keep track of election results beginning after 8 p.m. on election night via the Pennsylvania Department of State and/or your county election board. Find yours here.

Click here to see who’s on your ballot, and to make a voting plan.