At the moment I'm being a mixture of amused and dismayed that The Leader Of The Free Worldâ„¢, Bringer of Democracy and Libertyâ„¢ is still counting its votes days later
There is a pretty common misconception here, and it’s due to many people not understanding the difference between a state being declared for a candidate and certified for a candidate.
News organizations declare a state for a candidate once they determine it is mathematically impossible for one of the parties to win. This is unofficial. Official certification does not happen until all of the votes are counted, and this always takes a while. Counting mail in ballots, provisional ballots, and overseas ballots from our military and foreign residing citizens always takes longer. Sometimes recounts happen, and even though these rarely change an outcome, the certification can’t happen until this process is complete.
It took longer for news organizations to declare the winner in several states this elections because we have so many more mail in ballots than normal. Furthermore, in a traditional election one party always conceded the race once it becomes clear that they will not win. Trump didn’t and likely will never do this, which has dragged out the process.
That we are still counting votes is not at all out of the ordinary. Only the related circumstances around this are aberrant.
