Are election-night concessions binding?

Factual Questions
1

I don’t really bother much with politics, so forgive me for asking what may well be a fabulously stupid question.

If a candidate for office decides to concede the election to her opponent, and then winds up actually winning the election, is the concession somehow binding? Is a concession speech really “I give up, the office is yours”?

For the sake of argument, please overlook the likely fact that someone in a race so close it could fall from one side to the other with just a few votes would concede until all the votes were in.

2

It’s in no way binding.

In 2000, although Al Gore didn’t make a concession speech on election night, he did call George W. Bush and concede. A little while later, he called back and withdrew his concession.

Recount process and court battle went on for the next month, and while Gore ended up losing, it had nothing to do with the fact that he’d called and conceded. If he had made a concession speech, it would have been equally irrelevant.

3

The concession is a gesture of good will. It has no legal bearing. It’s the votes that count.

4

Thanks, y’all. I was pretty sure this was the case.

5

I covered a race (NY’s 25th congressional district) in which the incumbent declared victory on election night. Returns at that time showed him with a slight lead, but he ended up trailing when all the votes were tallied.

6

Of course not. In fact, the election isn’t decided until the election officials officially open the voting machines, several days after the elections, and read the machines. Or the data cartridges and the write-ins, etc. It takes several days to count all the votes. Then they announce the winner. Anything said by anyone prior to that is just talk.

When I lost my school board election by 1 vote, no one was sure for several days-until we all stood around in the warehouse and watched the machines be opened and counted. The vote didn’t change. :frowning:

I seem to remember one of the US presidential elections in the early part of the century (20th century) wasn’t decided for months. Apparently California was key to the race and several towns in the mountains got snowed in before they could ship their ballots to the county seat for counting. So officially they couldn’t decide the close election and hence the presidency was undecided. Fortunately for the US, they solved the problem before the electoral college met in December.