Here's what I don't understand...

[dreamshark]

I heard on the radio today that 35% of the votes in today's election have already been cast via early voting/absentee ballots. When are those votes counted?  I always thought that they didn't get counted until after the election was over, and even then they were only counted if the election was close enough that these votes could make a difference.  But if that's the case, there is no way that we will have election results tonight - not with 35% of the vote needing special handling.

Anybody know how this works?

Comments

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

I heard somewhere that state officials encourage sending in absentee ballots early so they can count them ahead of time, and that if you just turn them in on election day, it'll be a while before they get counted. Other states may vary.

I'm reading a book right now called Proofiness, all about numbers and they are misused. He has several chapters on polls and elections. Very relevant and enlightening.

[vgqn.livejournal.com]

I should have specified that I'm in California.

[davidschroth.livejournal.com]

In Minnesota, my understanding is that absentee ballots are counted on election day. Which after some setup, involves running the absentee ballots through a ballot counter.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't work that way in less enlightened states...

[dreamshark.livejournal.com]

Okay, after a night of intense election coverage I understand it better. The real question is the "early voting" - that's where this huge increase is coming from. In states that allow early voting and mail-in ballots the results are actually entered in the computer ahead of time but not tallied. After the polls close on election night, someone hits the tally button and voila! A whole bunch of new votes arrive.

Absentee ballots are a little different, since they can arrive after the election is over and done with. I think in that case they aren't even counted at all unless the election is close, but I'm not sure about that.