Election Day is over, but much work remains
The last chance to cast a ballot in the 2020 presidential election has passed. Now, we wait.
While it’s possible to have a good idea about the outcome of various races in Ohio, including the battle for the White House, official results that include absentee ballots arriving after Election Day won’t be certified for a few weeks. Provisional ballots – required of voters whose eligibility is questioned – also won’t be tallied until then.
So, what happens next?
Elections workers who have been dealing with a tsunami of absentee ballot requests dating back to at least August, record-busting levels of early voting both in person and via mail-in ballots, and crowds of voters on Election Day, will continue their work behind the scenes to certify the results to hit their Nov. 18 deadline set by Ohio Secretary of State Frank
Larose.
That means reaching out to voters for whom a local board of elections detected a problem on an absentee ballot identification envelope so they can fix the mistake. They also will start to process additional eligible absentee ballots that arrive in the mail after Election Day, but within the 10-day legal window to count. Staffers cannot tabulate them until the official canvass begins 10 days after the election, said Aaron Ockerman, executive director of the Ohio Association of Election Officials.
The process is typical of any election, though the potential for the return of another 243,023 absentee ballots Larose’s office said were still outstanding on Monday indicates that close races, either statewide or local, could remain uncertain.
Tens of thousands additional provisional votes, which require the board of elections to go through a verification process, also could be in the queue as well, said Paul Beck, emeritus professor of political science at Ohio State University.
Beck attributes that to the large swath of absentee ballot requests in Ohio because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Voters who requested an absentee ballot but attempt to vote on Election Day were directed to fill out a provisional ballot.
“They’re important, particularly if the election is really close,” Beck said.
If the election is indeed tight, as it was in the 2004 presidential contest between President George W. Bush and John Kerry, the candidate who is trailing might not concede as Kerry did as he trailed by about 137,000 votes with as many as 155,000 provisional ballots yet to be counted.
The armies of lawyers both presidential campaigns have ready also could file lawsuits over the counting of ballots in a hotly contested race.
“If it’s not close, they’re not going to care,” Ockerman said.
A really close election also could mean a recount. In Ohio, any race that is within 0.5% goes to an automatic recount.
While Beck expected to have a “good count” shortly after polls were to close at 7:30 p.m., he acknowledged the possibility that “we may not know the outcome for several weeks.”
Uncertainty about the outcome of the election has been lingering for months, though. University of California Riverside Professor Kate Sweeny said uncertainty in our minds can manifest physically as well.
“It means we worry. We feel anxiety. We can’t sleep well. We start to feel the stress in our bodies in various ways,” said Sweeny, who has studied the effects of uncertainty.
Sweeny said that is a biological response to recognizing threats stemming from not knowing what is coming and not being able to control it, but she recommended against feeding it by “doomscrolling” on social media.
Instead, she suggested meditation or finding an activity that requires engagement or “really gets you in the zone” to give the mind a temporary break.
And really, who couldn’t use a break from 2020? rrouan@dispatch.com @Rickrouan