Why Can't the United States Count it's Votes in a Single Night?

The answer? Because it chooses not to.

It is maybe the most bizarre yet accepted part of the modern American political tradition that for some reason the United States stands almost completely alone in the “democratic world” in its inability to count all of its presidential votes in a single day. Many days pass, and certain states can take weeks or even months to count every vote cast.

This is because the United States has not implemented a system that enables it to count all the votes, even though every other country in the democratic world can. In the 2020 Democratic primary in California, they didn't issue a final vote total until two and a half months after the day that voters went to cast their votes.

We are already being groomed not to anticipate any results or vote tallies being announced anytime close to election night. Here’s Politico last week:

In an interview with POLITICO Magazine at the News Corp. building in Midtown Manhattan, Mishkin said that he plans on calling the election as soon as he can, but that a protracted vote count means it may take a few days.

The race seems very, very close. It is dependent on a number of states, like Pennsylvania, that we believe are going to be reporting in a pattern similar to the way they have reported in the past. So I’d say, the over/under is Saturday. Which was when the call was made last time. Which is when Pennsylvania is likely to come in.

And another one, this time from CBS News:

Unlike many other states, Pennsylvania can only begin processing mail-in ballots on the morning of Election Day.

It took four days to call the election in Pennsylvania in 2020. As those days passed, leaving the 2020 election results hanging in the balance, all eyes were on the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. Police and protesters were outside while Schmidt and his fellow members of the Board of Elections oversaw the counting of a record 375,000 mail-in ballots, most of them from Democratic voters.

[Schmidt] has urged people to be patient with Pennsylvania.

But there is great doubt that the inability to have a final count on Election day is anything but deliberate. Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald offered an interesting take:

The country I know best after the United States or one of the countries I know best is Brazil, because of how closely I follow their politics and this is what happens in Brazil. Brazil is, to put it mildly, not known for being particularly bureaucratically efficient. It's the anti-Germany, as I often think about it, it's a country that has a great deal of difficulty – and I find it a charm – for anything to work efficiently. Yet, the way elections work is that they take place on a Sunday, not Tuesday, to ensure that the maximum number of people can vote and that work doesn't interfere. Voting is mandatory. So, there's a very pervasive culture that people do go and vote. They show an ID in order to vote even though Brazil has a well-known and notorious income inequality and it's not just people who are 18 and over, but even 16 to 18 who can vote. Brazil is a little bit smaller than the United States in population but when you put all those things together of mandatory voting and a bigger voting bloc and having it be on Sunday, the number of votes ends up being roughly similar to how many votes have to be counted in the United States. And the way every single election works is that the polls open at 8 in the morning and close at 5 in the afternoon or 6 p.m. in the afternoon, depending on the particular state. And then by 9 or 10 at night, 10:30 p.m. or 11 p.m. at the absolute latest, the full complete vote count not just for the presidential race but for the governor races, for the state legislatures are all fully counted and certified. 

Some will say that it’s a population size issue, but if that’s truly the case, explain how Indonesia, a country with the largest voting population, can do it in a single day.

From U.S. News & World Report, back in February:

There are roughly 205 million registered voters and turnout in past elections has been about 75%, according to the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, a U.S.-based organization that provides technical support for elections.

Voters have a six-hour window to cast their ballots. Indonesia has three time zones and the first polls, in the east, open at 2200 GMT on Feb. 13, and all will be closed by 0600 GMT on Feb. 14. Voting booths will be overseen by election officials, party members and independent observers to safeguard against manipulation. Polls must be closed nationwide before counting can begin.

Voters cast a secret ballot and dip fingers in indelible ink to prevent duplicate voting.

While an official vote count by the poll body is expected to last late into election night, quick counts by independent survey agencies should provide an early indication of results from 0800 GMT.

I could continue to list examples but I think you get the picture. If all of the other nations of the world can do it, then why can’t the U.S.?

There are some arguments that are worth noting. There's no federalized system in the U.S., the way there is in Brazil, France, Argentina, or South Korea. Instead, each state is responsible for certifying and counting and certifying its own vote totals. Most of these countries now use electronic voting, often with audited paper backups, whereas the United States continues to use very antiquated systems that prevent voting instantaneously or through a computer.

This is all by choice.

Still, we are chastised for even considering that their could be foul play in our elections. The truth is that you can and should ask why the United States makes the conscious choice to ensure that voting totals don't occur instantaneously but over days and even weeks.

Can you blame Americans for being skeptical when days go by and the results keep changing and no one knows where ballots are, and there are ballots over here of one kind and ballots over here from another, and some are destroyed and some get lost and some get disputed. There’re so many angles for malfeasance that it’s little wonder Americans are losing faith in our electoral process, especially when what happens in the U.S., perhaps more than any other country, ripples out and has a dramatic effect on the entire world.

Until the United States chooses to fix this problem, there will be growing distrust in the electoral process.