With more people voting absentee than ever before, many are wondering how quickly ballots will be counted in the presidential election. More than one million absentee ballots have already been submitted in Michigan, but officials aren’t allowed to pre-process those ballots until 10 hours before Election Day. The cumbersome procedure to count those ballots could delay full election results by days, according to Rochester Hills City Clerk Tina Barton.
“I want people to know that it is going to take time,” says Barton. “While I understand and appreciate their desire to know who won, we all want to know, at the same time what’s important to us again is the security of the process, the accuracy and integrity.”
Unofficial results are published after polls close on Election Night, but those totals will change as mail-in ballots are counted in the days that follow.
