These Key Swing States Don't Count Mail Ballots In Advance--Results May Take Days

[Jersey Devil]

1. I don't blame states for not counting mail or early votes til election day

Someone would definitely leak those numbers if they counted early and that could affect the votes of those who have not voted yet. It's also a common complaint by western states that results announced in the East before western polls close could affect their votes and turnout. Though I think they have a point I don't see how anything could be done about that.

When I was involved politically in local elections we used to be able to get local absentee results as soon as polls closed by calling friends in the elections office. That way we'd know how many kegs to tap for the victory party because the absentee count almost always mirrored the total count.