When are absentee ballots counted/reported?

Politics & Elections
1

I am registered as a permanent absentee / vote-by-mail voter because frankly, screw the hassle of going to a physical place (on a weekday!) and waiting in line, possibly for hours, just to fill out a card, which I can easily do at home.

I sent my ballot in last week, but I do wonder. When they start reporting results on election day, are those ballots already counted and reported first? Or are they last? Or somewhere in-between? We know the early results have a disproportionate impact due to influencing people who plan to vote later in the day, if those results make them think it’s not worth going.

The accompanying materials with the ballot actually say that they’ll count votes postmarked by election day and received within 3 days afterwards. But come on, it’s not like every race and measure isn’t definitively decided and reported on election day. I’ve certainly never seen the status of anything in an election change due to mailed-in votes in the following days (court-ordered recounts not qualifying), and I’d honestly be a little surprised if they even bother to count them. But what about the ones received on or before election day?

2

Depends on the state, so not knowing which state you vote it, one couldn’t say. There may also be a difference between “absentee votes” and “votes by mail”.

3

I wouldn’t, given that I now know that there are people employed to verify and tabulate provisional ballots cast on Election Day, in some states. The complete, official count isn’t done for several days after.

And there are certainly local races, at least, that have been decided by margins smaller than the totals of absentee and/or provisional ballots.

4

We have had local races decided by a single vote, and once there was a tie. It was settled by flipping a coin.

5

I have definitely seen local races decided days after the election, after all the absentee ballots are counted, if it is close enough.

6

I’m currently working for the San Diego (CA) County Registrar of Voters. My job (dull as peeling potatoes) is opening and examining mail-in ballots, looking for obvious errors. They go into big stacks, awaiting counting which begins election day.

(San Diego County is using optical-scan ballots. You use ink to fill in little ovals, which a scanning machine will look for. Right now, the big scanners are idle, but come Tuesday, hear 'em roar.)

7

As a general rule, absentee ballots are counted prior to receipt of the regular returns from the precincts after polls close. In states where early voting is allowed (as opposed to mail-in absentee ballots), I’m not sure; it probably varies from county to county.