If we learned nothing else from the 2020 presidential election, we at least came to realize that our insatiable thirst for instant gratification will not be sated when it comes to vote-counting. Election results, particularly with the relaxing of limits on mail-in voting, are simply going to take more time.
And that’s a good thing. Because above all else, we’re looking for accuracy, not expediency, when it comes to something so important to the practice of democracy.
Patience may have been in short supply as the counting dragged on for several days in the last handful of states, but we should be grateful to those election officials who demanded an accurate count down to the last vote.
Even more important to remember is that the work of election officials goes on for several more weeks. Local officials nationwide will be reviewing the results, dealing with challenges and handling recounts in some areas, all with the intent of certifying the election by month’s end.
In Pennsylvania, in particular, we’re going to have to learn to accept a longer period of counting the votes. The Republican-controlled Legislature and Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf came to an agreement earlier this year to allow mail-in voting — in light of the coronavirus pandemic — to any registered voter who preferred that method. Nearly 2.8 million voters chose to use a mail-in ballot for the presidential election, nearly 40% of the total votes cast.
While the governor and Republican leaders found common ground on mail-in voting, they couldn’t come to agreement on details that would have made the voting process smoother, notably an early start on preparing mail-in ballots for processing. So while millions of ballots arrived early in election offices across the state, officials were barred from doing any processing of the ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day.
Unless lawmakers can agree on giving election officials an early start to processing — but not counting — ballots earlier, elections are going to take more time.
But so what if they do? Our tech-driven lives, where information is only as far away as our phones, have led us to demand information immediately. We can’t fall into that trap when it comes to our elections, where the demand should be that every vote is counted … no matter how long that may be.
Voting procedures are determined by the states, and each may have some unique procedures to follow. In the end, all that matters is that local elections officials — the people we trust to run and verify elections — do their jobs well in whatever time it takes.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (TNS)
