EXPLAINED | US Election 2020: How Does Counting Work And When Will Results Be Revealed?

Here’s everything you need to know about the US election day and how counting works.

A voter casts his ballot at a polling station on US Election Day in Winchester, Virginia early November 3, 2020. - Polling stations opened in New York, New Jersey and Virginia early November 3, marking the start of US Election Day as President Donald Trump seeks to beat forecasts and defeat challenger Joe Biden. The vote is widely seen as a referendum on Trump and his uniquely brash, bruising presidency that Biden urged Americans to end to restore "our democracy." (Photo by ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)

Washinton DC: Amid the worldwide pandemic of Covid-19, the stage is all set for the election of the President of the United States of America. With President Donald Trump and his Democratic counterpart Joe Biden as the main contestants, the duo wrapped up their campaigns for the elections 2020 on Tuesday.  Biden has been leading in both national and state polls and is widely favored to win. But no poll has predicted that Trump will lose. Also, no conclusion can be made on the basis of polls as all forecasters were wrong in 2016 when they predicted a landslide win for Hillary Clinton. The first ballots have been cast in New Hampshire and the world awaits the results of the US presidential elections. Here’s everything you need to know about the US election day and how counting works: When and how are the votes be counted? There is no such apex body just like the Election Commission of India in the US, to monitor and conduct the elections. Different states of the country have different agencies and have a unique set of rules to conduct and monitor the elections. Before counting of the votes, there is a stage called processing in which checking of signatures of voters, verifying documentation, and even scanning of the ballots takes place. Also, each state has its own date for starting in-person or mail-in voting, submission, and processing as well as tabulating the ballots. As many as 100 million Americans have already exercised their franchise in the presidential election using early voting and mail-in ballots while another 60 million are likely to vote in person on November 3. Therefore, processing of all these votes is bound to take time and thereby delay the results. So, how and when the winner will be known? The count will officially be finalized in weeks but on Election night major TV networks “call” the election in favor of one of the candidates which is a projection that is based on the exit polls, interviews with voters, and voting trends. The candidate who is projected to have lost concedes the election. But this year due to the huge volumes of mail-in ballots, there is no clarity on when a clear winner will emerge. What are Trump & Joe Biden’s views on the polling process? Trump has repeatedly accused the Democratic party of voter fraud and has vehemently expressed his apprehensions about the mail-in ballot process. He has also refused to commit that he will accept the result of the elections if he loses in various televised interviews.

On the other side, Joe Biden and the Democrat party have expressed their fears about voter intimidation and suppression but have unequivocally been in favor of the mail-in ballot process.

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