Election Night Viewer's Guide: Why You May Need To Be Patient

You're probably anxious about the results, but patience may truly be a virtue on election night.

Followers of NPR's elections coverage should have read or heard this at least a few times by now: We may not know who wins the presidential election (or any number of other down-ballot races) on Tuesday night or early Wednesday, and that's OK.

State results are not final on election night; instead, organizations like The Associated Press — which NPR relies on for race calls — determine most winners well before local officials tabulate all votes.

But this year we're expecting slower counts, and the reason is straightforward: In response to the coronavirus pandemic, many states modified their voting rules, broadening access to mail-in voting and accelerating what had already been a rising mail-in voting trend.

And mailed-in ballots — with envelopes to open and signatures to check — simply take longer to tabulate than in-person votes.

Some individual state rules play key roles too. Take two swing-state examples: Florida allows counties to process ballots well ahead of Election Day, while officials in Pennsylvania have to wait until the morning of Election Day to begin that work.

And with far more voters opting for mail-in or drop-off ballots this year, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has conceded: "We probably won't know results on election night."