The balance of power in the US Congress following Tuesday’s midterm elections is still up in the air, with several key races yet to be called some 48 hours after many polls closed.
A cliffhanger-style multi-day wait for results is far from unusual in the United States, where it is the media that generally first calls elections, based on votes tabulated by county clerks and other officials as well as statistical analysis.
While the long delays can exasperate American voters, and raise questions from curious international observers, there are several reasons why the process can stretch out.
Patchwork of rules
For starters, US elections are largely decentralised, and each of the 50 states has its own rules.
Some Americans vote on machines, others with paper ballots. Some vote in person, others by mail.
Some vote on election day, others in advance. Many citizens take advantage of ballot drop boxes.
As election officials in multiple states urged patience with the vote counting, Republican US Senator Marco Rubio of Florida aired his complaints.
“If #Florida can count 7.5 million ballots in 5 hours how can it take days for some states to count less than 2 million?” Rubio tweeted Wednesday.
Ballots, on which Americans generally vote for a variety of candidates and initiatives, can take a while to tally.
With voting by mail widely popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic, things are taking even longer — the ballots can arrive at counting stations several days after the election. Ohio and Alaska count those that arrive up to 10 days later.
Compounding matters, in many states election officials are not even allowed to begin counting mail-in votes in advance.
The extended time needed to carry out the process fuels conspiracy theories, especially after the 2020 election, which president Donald Trump falsely claimed was rigged against him.
That race between Trump and eventual winner Joe Biden was not known for four days.
Georgia nail-biter
The southeastern state of Georgia played a special role in 2020, as the balance of the US Senate hung on a second-round election in the state.
This year is proving to be a case of deja vu.
With no one candidate surpassing the 50% threshold on Tuesday to prevent a second round, the two leading candidates, Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker are headed to a December 6 runoff.
Organizing elections in a country of some 333 million citizens is in itself a logistical challenge.
