#this is wild to me bc i'm from malaysia which ~only~ has 30 million people so votes are counted quickly

[thenighttrain]

okay. let me clarify election results for people! I hope this helps

-traditionally, votes have NOT been counted all in one night.

-the reason why in some years we knew the winner on election night was because of the margin of win in states. precints/county recorders report the vote count so far and statisticians predict the win ability from that. when they say a state wins, it means that the margin is so far ahead that the challenger cannot realistically catch up. when we say we win a state, these are PROJECTIONS.

-the voting counts takes anywhere from about a week to officially certify results. I can’t remember the latest a state has to certify results but I believe it is sometime in November so double check that. Not sure why people are saying December but i think that’s when the electors officially make their vote so that might be it?

-the reason people are worried is bc of the pandemic, mail in ballots have a higher volume this year because of the pandemic and many states dont allow counting until Election Day so it is doing to take some time

-people are predicting that Trump wants the mail in ballots to not count as it is predicted that democrats have voted mostly by mail whole republicans will probably vote mostly in person. there might be some legal challenges depending on how today goes!

-that is why turnout is so important in this election. the bigger the margin of victory, the less claim trump has that it was illegitimate!

thank you so so much for explaining, this was super clear!!! i hope this helps anyone else who is confused. all the best ❤️️❤️️❤️️