When Swing States Can Start Counting Millions of Mail-In Ballots
- States can start processing and counting at different times
- Pennsylvania and Wisconsin can’t start until Election Day
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The unprecedented amount of mail-in voting for the Nov. 3 election in response to the pandemic means some presidential swing states won’t be able to count all of their ballots on election night because of the rules for when they can start processing and tabulating them.
The timing matters because there could be hundreds of thousands of ballots left to count after the election in one or more states where the outcome is necessary to determine whether President Donald Trump or Democrat Joe Biden gets the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win if the race is close.