Candidates for President and Vice President of the United States, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and former Republican President Donald Trump and Senator JD Vance, R-Ohio, are featured on part of a mail-in election ballot Sunday in New York.

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Patrick Sison/AP

This Tuesday is Election Day, but for various reasons we may not get the results that evening.

One of those delays is the work required to process and count the ballots.

Most U.S. states offer all voters some form of early in-person and mail-in voting, and tens of millions of voters cast ballots early this year.

Because each state has different rules regarding the timeline for processing and counting mail-in ballots, many election officials cannot begin tabulating these ballots until Election Day, or even after the polls close that evening.

Make sure you know when your state will start processing and counting ballots.

And remember to sit tight and stay calm when the results finally come in.

A person drops off a ballot in a drop box during primary voting on May 21 in Portland, Oregon.

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Jenny Kane/AP/AP

Local laws limit when election officials can process ballots

Absentee and mail-in ballots must be processed before they can be counted.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the process of processing mail-in ballots varies by state. Typically, this involves several steps: checking the ballot, verifying that the signature on the return envelope matches the voter’s signature on file, opening the envelope, and preparing the ballot for counting. In most states, officials cannot enter the ballot into the voting tabulation until the polls close on Election Day.

Absentee and mail ballots must be processed before they can be counted.

• Forty-three states and the Virgin Islands allow election officials to begin processing these early ballots before Election Day.
• In Connecticut and OhioElection officials may, at their discretion, choose to begin processing early ballots earlier.
• In seven states – Alabama, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, as well as Washington, D.C., — Mail-in ballots may be processed on Election Day and before the polls close.

Processing mail-in ballots typically requires more time and resources than in-person voting, especially when high volume is involved, as was the case in the 2020 election. The limited time available to process ballots on Election Day can increase delays. This issue became especially apparent during the pandemic, when laws were changed to allow more people to vote early, resulting in significant challenges for election workers handling absentee and mail-in ballots.

In 2020, Kathleen Hale, the director of Auburn University’s Election Administration Initiative, told NPR to think of this process like the holidays, when receiving gifts and writing thank-you notes.

“Maybe normally you would receive ten gifts and write a thank you note for each gift. Only now you will receive a thousand,” Hale said. “The technical steps are not very complicated; there is just a long sequence that has to take place.”

Chet Harhut, deputy director of the Allegheny County Elections Department, carries a container of ballots from a secure area at the elections warehouse in Pittsburgh on April 18.

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Gene J. Puskar/AP/AP

Okay, but when will these ballots be counted and will the results be known?

Counting, tallying and tabulating are terms states use to describe the process of scanning ballots through their voting machines, according to the NCSL.

Most states begin tabulating mail-in ballots on Election Day, although there are some important differences between them. In some states, it is illegal to share the results of mail-in ballots before the polls close, which typically occurs between 6:00 PM ET and 12:00 PM ET.

According to the NCSL, these are the timelines for states to map out early ballots.

The 14 states that won’t allow counting to begin before polls close

• Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, and Washington, D.C.

The 23 state that the counting of mandates will begin on election day, before the polling stations close

• Arkansas, California, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

The twelve states that allow processing and counting to begin before Election Day:

• Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, Virginia and Utah.

Connecticut allows local voter registrars to determine when to begin counting ballots, the NCSL said. In the Virgin Islands, counting will begin after absentee ballots are processed, although the exact timing has not been specified. Puerto Rico has not indicated when counting can begin.