Already three days that Americans voted in record numbers for their next president but the outcome of this election was still uncertain during the night from Friday to Saturday. However, Joe Biden appears very close to beating Donald Trump.
While this delay has heightened tensions in an already deeply divided country, Donald Trump denouncing, without supporting evidence, an election “Stolen”. But why such a wait before the winner is announced?
The key states are too tight
It was barely a few minutes after the closing of polling stations in California (55 voters) on Tuesday evening that the American media gave the victory to Joe Biden in this progressive state, with nearly 40 million inhabitants.
But these kinds of media estimates aren’t an official result, and in states deeply divided between Republicans and Democrats, where the margins are very narrow, the verdict takes longer to come out even with far fewer residents.
“The tighter the election, the longer it takes”, explained Kathy Boockvar, secretary of state for Pennsylvania, responsible for overseeing the electoral process in this key state.
Different states in the United States also have different rules on the deadlines for receiving mail-in ballots, including those sent by military personnel and other US citizens living abroad.
Votes arrive until November 12 in North Carolina
The North Carolina is another of those pivotal states which could switch from one party to another, and where the election is therefore played out. However, she has stopped counting at least 171,000 provisional ballots or ballots arrived by mail which could make the difference in the presidential result.
Why ? North Carolina will accept all mail-in votes up to Nov. 12 as long as they are mailed by election day, Nov. 3. However, some local authorities, who can decide how the counting will take place, prefer to wait until all the ballots have arrived before starting the count.
In Nevada, another crucial state where the race is tight, ballots arriving through November 10 will be counted, provided they have been mailed by November 3.
The so-called bulletins “Provisional” also cause delays. They are provided to voters when doubts exist about their registrations, and should therefore be verified afterwards.
Avalanche of postal votes
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, states that were not used to processing ballots by mail received an avalanche of ballots sent out by citizens who preferred to avoid polling stations. Of the 160 million Americans who voted, a record 65 , 2 million did so by mail, according to an estimate from the US Elections Project.
In Pennsylvania, Republicans are in the majority in the State Assembly. They rejected a proposal to allow postal ballot counting to begin before election day, unlike other states.
And the situation is still complicated in some counties, such as Chatham, in state of georgia, where the duel is extremely close between Joe Biden and Donald Trump: two different authorities must monitor the counting process.
Legal remedies
The team of Republican President Donald Trump denounces these delays and demanded to stop the counting in certain states where he appears behind Joe Biden, in particular in Pennsylvania where the Republican Party has even turned to the Supreme Court. Republicans had been trying for months to prevent Pennsylvania from taking into account, as originally planned, ballots mailed by election day but arrived until Friday.
In the Wisconsin, where Joe Biden was declared the winner on Wednesday, the Supreme Court had ruled that only ballots arriving before November 3 would count. Finally, most states allow parties to observe results, but litigation has also delayed the process.
In Philadelphia in particular, supporters of Donald Trump have demanded to be able to approach closer to the limit set at 4.5 meters, because of the risk of the spread of Covid-19.
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