The balance of power in the US Congress following Tuesday’s midterm elections is still up in the air as several key races remain to be contested 48 hours after many polling stations closed.
A multi-day, cliffhanger-style wait for results is far from uncommon in the United States, where it is the media that generally calls elections first, based on votes tabulated by county and other officials and statistical analysis.
While the lengthy delays may anger American voters and raise questions from inquisitive international observers, there are several reasons the process may be dragging on.
– patchwork of rules –
First of all, US elections are largely decentralized, and each of the 50 states has its own set of rules.
Some Americans vote on machines, others with paper ballots. Some vote in person, others by mail.
Some vote on election day, others before. Many citizens use ballot boxes.
When election officials in several states called for patience while counting votes, US Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida voiced his grievances.
“If #Florida can count 7.5 million ballots in 5 hours, how can it take days for some states to count fewer than 2 million?” Rubio tweeted Wednesday.
Ballots, where Americans generally vote for a variety of candidates and initiatives, can take a while.
Since postal voting was widespread during the Covid-19 pandemic, it takes even longer – ballots can arrive at the counting stations several days after the election. Ohio and Alaska count those arriving up to 10 days late.
To make matters worse, many states do not even allow election officials to begin counting absentee ballots in advance.
The longer time it takes for the process to take place fuels conspiracy theories, especially in the wake of the 2020 election, which President Donald Trump falsely claimed was rigged against him.
This race between Trump and eventual winner Joe Biden was not known for four days.
– Georgia nail biter –
The southeastern state of Georgia played a special role in 2020 as the balance of the US Senate hung on a second-round vote in the state.
This year is proving to be a case of deja vu.
With no candidate clearing the 50 percent hurdle Tuesday to prevent a second round, the two leading candidates, Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker, face a Dec. 6 runoff.
Organizing elections in a country of around 333 million people is a logistical challenge in itself.
– Unforeseen hiccups –
The process rarely goes without a few minor hiccups. This year, for example, voting machines in one Arizona county encountered operational problems that disrupted voting.
Some Republicans — including Trump himself — pointed to it as evidence of fraud, a claim that authorities promptly denied.
Even without technical incidents, races can get very close, as several elections on Tuesday have shown.
Twenty states have laws that require a recount when the gap between candidates is too small.
In a prominent case in 2000, the country held its breath for 36 days, with the entire election hinged on one state’s belated results, Florida, when Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore competed for the White House competed.
At the heart of the bourgeois Imbroglio was a razor-thin vote that resulted in a highly controversial hand count. In the end, the fight led to the Supreme Court, which issued a ruling in Bush’s favor in December.
In 2008, a race for a US Senate seat in Minnesota resulted in an epic legal battle. The result finally became known about eight months later.
