The Patriot Post® · Election Day, Not Election Days

It is the year 2024, and yet the amount of time it takes our nation to tally up the vote on Election Day would make one wonder if we are still in the era of pre-electricity and horse-drawn carriages. We’re now one week past Election Day on November 5, and several states still haven’t counted all the votes.

Thankfully, since Donald Trump won in a landslide, the country is not forced to wait on pins and needles for Alaska, Arizona, California, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Washington to finish counting ballots.

As CNN anchor Jake Tapper commented during election night coverage to fellow anchor John King, “I mean, John, I mean, it’s 2024. They only have 16% reported in Wayne County, home of Detroit?” Tapper joked, “Death, taxes, Wayne County…” King responded, “Wayne County, they’re consistent. This is my 10th presidential election and the 10th time you’ve been counting late at night, and you’re saying, ‘Hello, Detroit, hello.’” He then noted, “But, you know, you see the secretary of state there. Jim is there. Again, that’s nothing nefarious. It’s just an efficiency. You know, to your point about that we live in the technological age. And Jim just said, you know, they changed the law in Michigan. So, you could count some of the early votes, you know, beforehand, and then release them after the polls close. So, it adds to the why.”

But in Michigan’s defense, the state’s numbers were counted by the end of the following day. Officials didn’t take nearly a week to count.

Contrast this with Florida, which had 95% of its votes counted two hours after the polls closed. Since its embarrassing “hanging chad” election fiasco in 2000, the Sunshine State has worked to develop one of the nation’s most efficient vote-tallying systems. Indeed, Florida should serve as a template for how every state counts votes.

The first and foremost issue that causes vote-counting delays is directly tied to mail-in ballots. Arizona receives a significant number of mail-in ballots. California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont, and Washington all mail ballots to every eligible resident. Obviously, counting mail-in ballots is more time-consuming, given that these ballots must go through a verification process that in-person voting easily overcomes, especially with voter ID laws.

But Florida also accepts mail-in ballots, so how can it tally its votes so rapidly and efficiently versus, for example, Arizona and California? It is here where Florida prizes the importance of Election Day being not only the day that people vote but also the day their votes are tallied.

Florida requires that all mail-in ballots be requested, and for these votes to be accepted, all mail-in ballots must be received no later than Election Day, regardless of postmark date. Florida also verifies and tallies all mail-in votes that come in before Election Day. Like nearly all states, Florida allows in-person early voting, with these results held and reported with Election Day votes after the polls close.

Meanwhile, Arizona and California have set up a system that looks to be designed to prize inefficiency and uncertainty. Arizona does not begin counting mail-in ballots until Election Day. To make matters worse, Arizona does not even begin the tedious process of mail-in ballot verification until Election Day. And if the signature on file does not match that on the mail-in ballot, state law requires election officials to contact that voter, who then has an opportunity to prove it was their ballot. This process can take days. If Arizona simply started this mail-in ballot verification process well before Election Day, then the nation wouldn’t be waiting for days for the Grand Canyon State to report its election results.

California may be the worst offender when it comes to election efficiency. Not only does the state send out mail-in ballots to voters whether or not they have been requested, but the Golden State will also accept mail-in ballots up to a week after the election so long as they are postmarked on or before Election Day. It would seem that California wants to drag out the results of an election as long as possible. The state has turned the entire notion of an election day on its head. California has turned the mailbox into the ballot box. Not only is that the most insecure form of election protection measures, but it also breeds doubt surrounding the accuracy of election results.

Congress should pass a national Election Day integrity measure that uses Florida as the template for how states should be required to at least deal with mail-in ballots. Whether a vote is sent in the mail or cast in person at a polling station, the cutoff for ballots to be accepted for counting should be Election Day. If a citizen doesn’t take the time to send their mail-in ballot well before the election, vote early in person, or vote at their local polling station on Election Day, then the rest of the country shouldn’t be forced to accommodate their lack of timeliness.

It’s time to make Election Day a single day again.