Here we go again: What to expect as Georgia counts votes

[brooklynite]

AP News

WHEN DOES THE BALLOT COUNTING START?

The polls are set to close at 7 p.m. EST on Election Day, and that’s when ballot counting can begin. Absentee ballots must be received by the close of polls to be counted. Military and overseas ballots postmarked by Tuesday and received by Friday will be counted, and absentee voters also have until Friday to fix any problems so their votes can be counted.

No ballots, including absentee ballots received in advance of Election Day, can be counted until the polls close. But a state election board rule requires county election officials to begin processing absentee ballots — verifying signatures on the outer envelope, opening the envelopes and scanning the ballots — before Election Day. That should speed things up on election night. Still, some absentee ballots received by mail or in drop boxes up until 7 p.m. on Election Day will still need to be processed.

WILL WE KNOW THE WINNER ON ELECTION NIGHT?

Just like in November, it’s very possible Americans will go to bed without knowing who won. All indicators point to the likelihood of very tight margins in both races.

Media organizations, including The Associated Press, often declare winners on election night based on the results that are in, voter surveys and other political data.

But in a close race, more of the vote may need to be counted before the AP can call a winner.

[bearsfootball516]

1. Once again, beware of the red mirage.

Tonight, the initial results will come in and they'll be overwhelmingly red, because the majority of Democratic votes won't be counted until the next few days.

[Mike 03]

2. Thank you

Kick and Rec.

[louis-t]

3. It will be a repeat of Nov. 3, with assface screaming

to "stop the counting, I won". I believe there will be at least one recount. It's going to be a helluva week.

[oldsoftie]

4. The law needs to be changed so mail in votes CAN be counted early.

I'm not an IT person, but there IS a way that early votes could be counted by machine in each district & that machine count not be accessible until election day. A rep from both parties would be required to "open" the count. And at NO time would the counting machine be connected to the internet.
Its ridiculous to have to wait till election NIGHT before you can count votes you've had for weeks.
This way there isnt any waiting for days for the count to be completed.
Unless the state changed the rule HAS been changed since the nov elections.

[Buns_of_Fire]

6. I think it's just a difference in terms: "processing" vs. "counting"

The bulk of the time is spent "processing" the mail-in ballots. Verifying signatures, opening the mailing envelopes, extracting the ballot envelopes, opening them, getting the actual ballot suitable for scanning, and the actual scanning itself (which creates machine-readable bits and bytes for the counting software).

But that's where the process stops, by law, until the polls close on election night, when the actual counting software is fired up.

That's when all those bits and bytes spit out by the scanners can be fed into the "counting" software to assign them to the proper slots for the official tallies. In the scheme of things, this part takes very little time.

[oldsoftie]

8. But if thats the case, why did it take DAYS to get a final total from so many counties?

It should've been done by midnight if its just the computers finishing the counts.
And again, i'm no IT guy, so i may just not be getting it!

[BlueWavePsych]

5. CNN overtime tonight ...

[Initech]

7. I don't know what is so hard for conservatives to understand.

More people live in big cities. People vote blue in those cities. Atlanta has a population of what? 5 million? That's way more than about 1/2 the counties outside of Atlanta combined.

[Ingersollman]

9. Your

first sentence would take volumes to explain.

[caraher]

10. It's also worth remembering the motivated reasoning at play

They don't want to understand their views are minority views, and their leaders are happy to support every illusion to the contrary with unsupported fantasies of fraud. It's a symbiotic relationship.