“Everything counts in large amounts.” – Martin Gore

It looks like we finally know Republicans will maintain a razor-thin majority in the U.S. House of Representatives for the next two years.

Yet, early this week there were still a few House races without a winner declared which naturally leads to questions as to why it is taking so long to count ballots in several of these states and have a winner named. It is a legitimate question, and there are several reasons.

We will start with the most obvious – some of these races are really close. Many states have a provision in place where a recount is required if the vote totals between candidates are neck-and-neck, or a candidate requests a recount.

States will wait to certify a winner until after the recount takes place to ensure the correct candidate is elected. News services are reluctant to declare a winner if there is a possibility the results could be overturned.

This delay actually happens more than you might think, but the spotlight is that much brighter in this election due to how close the makeup of the House will be between Democrats and Republicans.

For the remainder of the reasons, you need to keep in mind that states control the vast majority of their own election rules and practices, so there is variety in how long the process takes.

Since the turn of the century, multiple states, mostly in the western U.S., have moved to all-mail voting. This is similar to absentee voting with the notable exception being everyone on the voter list has a ballot sent to them through the U.S. Postal Service instead of voters having to apply to receive a ballot through the mail.

Some of these states, such as California, will accept ballots returned through the mail up to a week after the election as long as the postmark for the mailed ballot shows it was picked up on election day. This includes voters who are mailing in their ballots from outside the country, a group mostly made up of people serving in the military and their families.

Processing mail ballots takes longer for election workers as they have to verify certain information for each ballot they receive, including ensuring the voter’s signature matches the signature in the voter signature database.

Should there be a problem with confirming a voter’s information or signature, election officials usually are required to reach out to the voter and provide the voter a few days to come in and confirm their signature or provide the additional information needed to accept the ballot – a process called curing the ballot. Again, this adds time to the counting process.

Some states allow election officials to begin the process of verifying information included with mailed ballots before election day – but not count the votes on the ballot itself – which can save time. However, other states do not allow election officials to begin any process involved with ballots until election day arrives.

Furthermore, many states have adopted a process called same-day voter registration. This process allows voters who have not previously registered or have moved and not updated their registration information to either register or update their registration on election day.

Those who use same-day registration are allowed to vote a provisional ballot. This is a ballot that will not be counted until registration information can be confirmed by an election official after election day.

If an election official can verify the same-day registration voter’s information is correct and that the person is eligible to vote, then that person’s vote will counted, and he or she will be registered to vote for future elections just like a regular voter. Stop me if you heard me say this earlier, but this adds time to the counting process.

Add in typical administrative snafus such as a malfunctioning vote tabulator or illness breaking out among a county’s election staff in addition to possible lawsuits concerning any supposed irregularities, and you have yourself a longer-term process.

Vote counting is carried out by local governments throughout the U.S. As you might expect, some places are better equipped to do this than others. Funding provided to local offices for staff and equipment along with the professionalism and experience of the local election officials can go a long way toward how quickly they complete the count.

In Alabama we do not have all-mail voting, same-day registration or any major races that were especially close, so the results were known more quickly. If you want California to hurry it up, you will have to learn patience. As the old saying goes, it’s a nice place to visit, but I don’t think I would want to count votes there.