Official U.S. election vote counts legally take weeks to certify

Ahead of the November 8 midterm elections in the United States, online posts have expressed doubts about the significance of vote counting continuing after election day – with social media users suggesting this is sign of a plan to manipulate the results. While media organizations often “call” elections on election night or soon after, experts on election processes told Reuters elections are frequently never confirmed on election night and the process of verifying ballots can take weeks.

Examples of posts characterizing this process as a “set up for the big steal” or Democrats “wanting to steal” the election are viewable (here) (here). Other posts echoing this narrative also misleadingly claim that vote counting used to be completed on election night “until a few years ago” (here).

Some users making this claim refer to a statement by U.S. President Joe Biden on Nov. 2 in which he noted that “in some cases, we won’t know the winner of the election for a few days – until after a few days after the election” (here) .

Moments earlier in his speech, Biden referred to an increased number of ballots cast by mail or in early voting and to some states not beginning to count them until election day.