How the US counts votes

In a normal presidential election year, many Americans go from casting our vote before work in the morning to turning off the TV before bed, secure in our knowledge of who will lead the country for the next four years. But in 2020, there’s a better-than-average chance that won’t happen.

Even before the coronavirus struck, more Americans each election were either voting early or voting my mail. But in 2020, these numbers are expected to skyrocket, and that means states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, which don’t start counting mail-in ballots until election day, probably won’t have results for several days. This year, voters are facing a pandemic, a deliberately underfunded postal service, and the closure of polling locations in battleground states like Georgia, Ohio, Arizona, and Texas.

In this video, we take a comprehensive deep dive into how states count votes. Each of the 3,141 counties in the US has its own rules, but there are some basic steps that are mostly the same across the country. Whether you’re voting in person early, on election day, by mail, or dropping off your ballot, we break down some of the differences and similarities in how and when states collect, verify, process, and count ballots.

Once you understand how votes are counted, it’s clear just how important each vote really is.

Further reading:
Voting by mail and absentee voting (MIT Election Data and Science Lab)

Democracy Diverted: Polling Place Closures and the Right to Vote (The Leadership Conference Education Fund)

Election night marks the end of one phase of campaign 2020 – and the start of another (Pew)

How Quickly Will Your Absentee Vote Be Counted? A State-by-State Timeline (New York Times)

The Voting Process: From the Ballot Box to the Presidency (NBC News)

How Mail-in Voting Works In Ohio: A Step-By-Step Guide (WVU)

[utkb]

Why is everything so confusing In America?

[kjmok]

Seriously every vote counts. Here in Malaysia we had an unprecedented voter turnout rate in 2018 and managed to overthrow a government that has been in power for 60+ years.

[buccanerk]

In Germany we either vote in person on election day (which is always on a Sunday when people are off work) or by mail before the election. A few weeks in advance every German citizen who is allowed to vote will receive an election voting card along with a pre-paid stamped envelope. You just throw it into the mailbox or you bring it with you on election day. Job done.

[SoSo-lidn]

Its funny how Americans keep going on about "FREEDOM" and "DEMOCRACY" and it is not nearly as simple as other countries.

[Carrieland]

Me, an Australian: "I don't need to think about the US election so much, I don't even live there."
Also me: *desperately clicks on Vox video explaining the intricate vote counting process for the US election*

[Phyto.]

Watching the current affairs of your country is like watching the fall of Rome in real time.

[alusias]

me: is not american, doesn’t live anywhere close to america
also me: * watches every video I can find on the 2020 elections *

[oswald]

Video : How the US counts votes

Nevada : "We don't do that here"

[ArkhamDelta]

How to make everything more complicated for absolutely no reason.

[.achyuthans]

For once my country does stuff easier than America...

[luciabreccia]

In my country, everyones votes on the same day (Sunday) on schools. Depending on where you live, you're assigned a nearby school and classroom you should vote in. You enter an empty classroom with all ballots, place one in an envelope, get out of the classroom and place the envelope in a box. Each classroom has a "board" of people that are randomly selected between all the population weeks before the election, and have to play the role of checking everyone's identifications, replacing ballots if they run out, and ensuring you enter your envelope on the box. Meanwhile, representatives of all parties check that everything is going well. At the end of the day, the "board" of people of each classroom take the box with all the votes into the room and count them visible to everyone there, including representatives of all or some of the parties. The board's president then writes the results of that room in a special envelope, and every other member has to sign it. Then, that is given to the authorities that are responsible of safely transport it and upload the data. You can check if your "classroom" is uploaded with all the national results, and it always is. Is that easy and transparent and it's very difficult to commit fraud. It really seems like the US makes it purposely difficult for people to vote.

[sakibsagirul]

In Bangladesh, we don't need to vote. Last time, the ruling party did that for us on day before election night. So, we know, who is going win 2/3 yrs earlier.

[excellentdriver]

they literally do this on purpose, the system DOESN’T need to be like this

[lukelafratta]

Why don’t we just have the presidential candidates in an arena and they have to fight to the death.

[CosmosBFN]

They got NASA and top universities but still can't simplify their election. 😂😂😂

[howexoticvietnam]

This is a good channel. I am thinking of creating a channel like this in Vietnam.

[checkKcube]

The US political system has to be rebuilt from the ground up. It made sense 200 years ago but times have changed...

[schvqef]

"In politics, stupidity is not a handicap."
-A useless spam bot

[alexandre-guzu]

In France : you show up on election day (a sunday). You wait 5 minutes tops. You vote. They count the ballots at the end of the day. The end.

[nqzttmu]

"Democracy is a marathon, not a sprint."