Here in UK all polls are done by with paper ballots. When polls close there is a big push to get the boxes in the right place and votes counted quick. If a recount is needed its done then an there, it causes a hold up but nothing major.
Polls close at 10pm and by midnight-ish the results start coming in. In some places like highlands & islands it takes longer (transport and weather) but usually by 4am–ish everything is fully counted and announced. Its unusual to still be going at it after 5/6 am. And yes - we’ve had some very close races lately.
My confusion is, its not really that different to how its done in Mississippi. How is it possible to still be counting votes 3 days later??
I’ve been keeping an eye on the news but I’m finding it difficult to get a clear answer. What the hell is taking so long???
Because they have to say Mississippi after each number
It’s called an avenue for corruption to take hold.
It’s Mississippi, once the person counting uses up all their fingers and toes someone else has to take over.
It’s because they have to say Mississippi between each count.
125 Mississippi, 126 Mississippi, 127 Mississippi…
The main delay is that Mississipi allows postal votes postmarked up to election day. They then allow 10 days for these to make it through the system and then they count. By contrast, in the UK, postal votes must arrive by 10pm on polling day so are counted at the same time as paper ballots.
Then there are provisional ballots, which are votes cast in person where their eligibility is in question. This may be because the voter did not produce ID or did not appear on the register for the polling station they attended, or if their details on the database were inaccurate. Each of these ballots then needs investigation to check the validity of the vote, and may come down to litigation.
Why this is noticeable now is because usually postal votes are somewhat moot, and by the time in-person votes have been cast a clear winner can be provisionally announced. This time in Mississippi the in-person voting was so close that postal ballots or even provisional ballots will be decisive.
Then there are provisional ballots, which are votes cast in person where their eligibility is in question. This may be because the voter did not produce ID or did not appear on the register for the polling station they attended, or if their details on the database were inaccurate. Each of these ballots then needs investigation to check the validity of the vote, and may come down to litigation.
Wait… How does that work? Is a vote not anonymous when it’s provisional?
Not sure about Mississippi, but a common method in other states and for postal votes is 2 envelopes. The outer one includes the voter’s full info to be verified. The inner envelope contains their ballot. The outer envelope must be fully verified or rejected, then the inner envelope is sent to either the pile of votes to be counted, or the pile to be destroyed unopened.
Yes, a bad actor could skip process and identify how a person votes, but it would be obvious to everyone else in the room (and there are many people in the room watching for exactly this type of behavior).
Ohhh, provisional mail votes! That makes more sense. We have that system in the Netherlands too, with double envelopes
There can be provisional in person ballots too. You give the voter an envelope to put the ballot in until the provisional status is resolved that hides the votes of the voter.
They’re two different concepts, but there’s a lot of overlap in the details. Each one must be fully verified before it can be accepted. Provisional usually means their eligibility couldn’t be verified at the polling station on election day, for a variety of reasons, but this lets them cast a vote before the deadline while the rest gets sorted out later.
We have to prove we’re a legal citizen and reside in the district (precinct) where we cast our votes.
But if you’re not a legal citizen or don’t reside in that district, why would they even send you a voter pass?
People move, die, get married/legally change their names, or simply can’t afford the cost of or travel to obtain a RealID. OTOH, immigrants do need a RealID.
Computer glitches and human error occur. Bureaucracies aren’t designed for efficiency.
ETA, a percentage of immigrants don’t have visas but do need to work. Identity theft occurs, but it’s not as overblown as some media and politicians make it. In a country with the population as large as the USA, a small percentage can translate into bureaucratic tangles that are frustrating to unknot. I don’t blame the immigrants as much as policy, both in wrecking immigrants’ nation of origin, as well as nigh-impossible to navigate labyrinths of bureaucracy.
People move, die, get married/legally change their names
All things that are already registered in the government’s basic citizen administration (or whatever it’s called in your country). Deaths and moving to a new address are both things you are required to register with the government ASAP. Marriage and legal name changes are performed by the government (it’s kind of the entire point).
Computer glitches and human error occur. Bureaucracies aren’t designed for efficiency.
No, but a person’s whereabouts and legal status are necessary for taxes, and if there’s something governments are very good at it’s collecting taxes.
All things that are already registered in the government’s basic citizen administration (or whatever it’s called in your country). Deaths and moving to a new address are both things you are required to register with the government ASAP.
This actually sounds like a science fiction to me. You obviously don’t realize how antiquated and disconnected governmental bureaucracy is here in the U.S.
Very few systems can access data gathered by other systems. Job applications and other processes often require “background checks” to verify our identity by cross referencing several disparate databases and searching local and federal data for criminal histories, evidence of name change, etc. Meaning before someone will trust you with employment or a loan, they will pay a service to verify who you are because it’s such a difficult process to do.
The affidavit vote counting process is essentially doing that background check on each voter to verify their identity and eligibility to vote. And the Mississippi count at issue here is happening in one of the poorest, most understaffed, and most technology unadvanced states in the country.
I’m not sure you understand me. What could and should be are not always what actually is. Additionally, the USA has nearly 350 mn people, each state uses their own tech, own rules unless otherwise federally mandated, and DOGE went into federal systems and deleted and destroyed a lot. Moreover, individual counties and municipalities have their own systems. Rural areas don’t have the funding populous areas do, and people who can afford higher taxes simply don’t want to pay them and fight against them. Small towns here don’t even have websites, but FB pages.
not in the US
Mississipi allows postal votes postmarked up to election day. They then allow 10 days for these to make it through the system and then they count.
Wondered about this. Wild. Sounds like the whole system is fiddled to ensure the republican norm.
Mail in voting lets more people vote, generally people who can’t make it to the polls day of because they have to work or have children with no child care (poor, working class, more diverse). Conservatives in the US tend to dislike it and worked hard this election to try to kill it.
Some of it is mail in ballots but that’s normal in most states. The 1 week delay in Mississippi right now are the affidavit (provisional) ballots where someone didn’t have the right ID, had just changed their name, or otherwise couldn’t match their registered voter identity.
Those folks sign a temporary vote (affidavit or provisional) and then have a week to follow up with the proper ID and otherwise sort out their information to ensure their vote is counted.
Remember that NONE of the results in any state are certified yet. Everything at this point is just projected wins based on statistical probability. Until all votes are counted, and potentially recounted depending on each state’s voting laws, there are no official winners yet anywhere. Some states have mandatory recounts if results are within a certain range. Some the candidates can request recounts if within certain ranges. That sort of thing.
Most states allow mail in votes as long as they are postmarked by election day. Usually the race isn’t close enough to where the likelihood of ballots arriving more than a day or so after would change the outcome. Mississippi is unusually close, it is extremely rare for any election to be this close.
It’s not a big deal really, the entire electoral system timeframe in the US is still based on needing to travel by horse to deliver notifications of counts and things like that. It was never updated for modern technology so there is plenty of time built into the system to count and adjudicate normally.
Until all votes are counted, and potentially recounted depending on each state’s voting laws, there are no official winners yet anywhere.
I suppose I don’t know the legality of it, technically, but in many places the obviously defeated candidates will outright concede.
I’m pretty sure that’s just the right thing to do accepting the inevitable and showing sportsmanship, it has no actual legal bearing on the election. Even if everyone else concedes, they still have to finish counting and certify the election officially.
It’s not a big deal really, the entire electoral system timeframe in the US is still based on needing to travel by horse to deliver notifications of counts and things like that. It was never updated for modern technology so there is plenty of time built into the system to count and adjudicate normally.
To be honest it sounds incredibly backward to someone from a country where (in a general election) you vote one day, results announced by the time you wake up the next, and new head of govt in power by 2pm that day 😅
In general, its as if rules and procedures in US are chiseled on a stone tablet and cannot ever be modified or removed.
Keep in mind when this election system spanning what was effectively over a dozen separate countries was developed, much of the world were still governing Monarchies.
Useful when you have to change the head of government 2-3 times a year.
It sounds surprisingly fair to me. Many people who have to use postal voting work long hours or multiple jobs and they’re unlikely to vote R.
Is there no early voting in Mississippi?
Yes, but very limited. Basically, only if you’re disabled, old (basically the retired), or temporarily residing elsewhere (aka rich people with multiple homes).
Who is entitled to vote absentee by mail?
- Any person who is temporarily residing outside of their county of residence, and the ballot must be mailed to an address outside the municipality.
- Any person who has a temporary or permanent physical disability and who, because of such disability, is unable to vote in person without substantial hardship to himself, herself or others, or whose attendance at the voting place could reasonably cause danger to himself, herself or others.
- The parent, spouse or dependent of a person with a temporary or permanent physical disability who is hospitalized outside of his or her county of residence or more than fifty (50) miles distant from his or her residence, if the parent, spouse or dependent will be with such person on election day.
- Any person who is sixty-five (65) years of age or older.
- Any incarcerated individual who has not been convicted of a disenfranchising crime. Residency of incarcerated individuals is determined by the residence of the person prior to his/her incarceration.
https://www.sos.ms.gov/yall-vote/absentee-voting-information
Hopefully this situation encourages them to allow more early voting. Everyone pissed Mississippi taking so long now.
It’s a lot better for the state if these people vote early instead of wait until election day to mail in their vote and then take ten days to arrive, or find out they aren’t registered and need to produce ID 5 days after the election.
Or are very poor and rural, without transportation.
Better ways to handle it though i.e. send ballots out x weeks beforehand and demand they are returned by polling day.
I’m not a fan of postal ballots tbh and people in places with mandatory voting (e. G. Oz) work just as hard and manage to do their duty.
Better ways to handle it though i.e. send ballots out x weeks beforehand and demand they are returned by polling day.
because each State sets how their elections are handled. Many states do this, but mail-in voting isn’t universal. Some states as soon as you register they’re automatically going to send you a ballot you can mail back or drop off, others you can register for permanent early ballots. I bet you can guess which States those tend to be, and which political party tends to govern them. There are states that don’t allow it at all, and some only allow you to request an early ballot if you can prove you’re going to be out of the city/county/state on election day. And that requires that you weren’t purged from the voter rolls without being notified after the registration deadline (which can be months before election day).
places with mandatory voting (e. G. Oz) work just as hard and manage to do their duty.
That requires that voting is made easily and readily available. Something not true across much of the US since there is a party that historically does better when fewer people vote. So they do everything they can to prevent people from voting as much as possible (legally or not). Things like shortening hours the polls are open, or removing polling locations entirely, even making it so there’s only 1 location for an entire county with millions of people. Or not allowing people to vote after the polls close, even if they are already in line. And purging voter rolls days before the election so people have no idea they’re no longer registered to vote.
Not to mention that while employers are usually required to give you time to vote, the requirement is often only an hour or two, while the lines at the polls can be multiple hours long. And that doesn’t take into account people having to work multiple part-time jobs where neither is required to give that time because there should be off hours to vote, but with the other job/jobs that time doesn’t actually exist.
And? Our bureaucracy is the way it is by design, to favor slavers.
Ok I do my job and mail it back early. But the postal system doesn’t drive it over quickly enough and it doesn’t get there in time. So my vote doesn’t count? I did my job. So why should my vote not count? As long as I do my job and it’s postmarked by a certain date, my vote should count.
we have postal votes in Australia and the closing date for them to be received is 2 weeks after polls close.
One Mississippi, two Mississippi…
In my head there’s a southern belle sitting on a porch fanning herself with her hat, sipping lemonade. “I do declare I just cannot count these ballots in this heat!!”
Because of a voter-suppression effort that used unverified credit data to delete voter registration since the primaries:
https://desotocountynews.com/mississippi-news/secretary-of-state-ignored-demands-to-reinstate-voters-inactivated-by-unverified-experian-data-days-before-midterms-harm-is-falling-on-eligible-voters/ https://mississippitoday.org/2026/11/02/red-flag-voter-inactivations-surge-in-midterms-since-secretary-of-state-adopted-unverified-experian-data-to-clean-voter-rolls/
So when people got to the polls, they were told that they had been deregistered. And they would only be allowed to sign ‘affadavit ballots’.
Mississippi holds its right to determine the outcome of the vote via jury. I’m not unpacking the illegality of that statement, simply giving an observation on why things are going to take until the backwaters are forced to capitulate
So, after the votes are counted they may ask a jury to approve it?
Or is it like a fully litigated court case?
They may ask a jury to approve it, fortunately it’s not a trigger on every situation occurrence.
There was a quote I saw on NPR that was something close to:
Mississippi is not a model of electoral efficacy
Honestly, this applies to most of the US. There are some wild laws on that end of the ocean
It depends! Each state is allowed to make their own laws on how an election should run.
In Colorado, we have ballots mailed out to everyone a month ahead. Then you can either drop it off at a ballot box around town, or mail it back.
It has to be received by the county clerk by 7pm on election Day to count.
You can vote in person too, but I’ve never done that.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwj0llvqqm72o
The tldr is that the vote is super tight, with Democrats in the lead and the Republicans don’t want to conceed.
They’re holding out for the verification of votes where people didn’t show id at the time, and postal votes in the hope it could change the outcome.
Concession has no legal importance. It’s a sign of goodwill, and puts the campaign behind them. People have revoked their concessions as more ballots came in, but it’s very rare.
There will probably be legal challenges, given how close the results are. Any group that gets disqualified could swing the results.
They’re holding out for the verification of votes where people didn’t show id at the time
This is news to me, seems so wildly inefficient. It’s like letting a credit card transaction go through first then check if the card is legit or not 2 days later.
Wild. Sore losers by the sounds of it.
Dunno. This should be default behaviour. Only publish the result when you have the result.
Am I right in thinking that some results in the US are decided without all (valid) ballots being counted?
Decided yes, certified no. The final certified vote tally is supposed to have all valid ballots counted for every single race. That’s the official result and typically isn’t due until early December.
Yeah, if you’re up by 12 thousand votes and there’s only another 9 thousand left to check, you don’t need to wait to say who’s won.
Don’t need an ID to vote in the US
Edit: mea culpa
The rules vary by state. Some do.
Sadly true and gross
How do you register to vote? Take me through the process.
I heard that its cuz they have to be like “1 mississippi, 2 mississippi… etc…”
(but seriously tho who counts like that, have y’all even heard of anyone who counts like that? lmfao)
But seriously answer: The ballots are still being carried in the wagon on
horseback(edit: I mean horse drawn carriages, you know what I mean), give our Southern Horsies friends a break, or else PETA will get you! xD(but seriously tho who counts like that, have y’all even heard of anyone who counts like that? lmfao)
It’s for counting time.
Saying ‘Mississippi’ after each number gives you around one second per count.Do they hire Count Von Count to count the vote? Cus it would be like
One, one mississippi. Two, two mississippi. Three, three mississippi. Ahh ahh ahh ahh
No votes for the Republican cunt ahh haa haa
What the hell is taking so long???
I guess their ballot boxes are even bigger than the ones in Texas, and that’s causing tons of trouble, but they would never admit it
/s
