By MAYA SWEEDLER

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the 2020 presidential election, Florida reported the results within a few hours of poll close of more than 99% of ballots cast.

In California, almost one-third of ballots were uncounted after election night. The state was making almost daily updates to its count through Dec. 3, a full month after Election Day.

This wasn’t unusual or unexpected.

California, the nation’s most populous state, is consistently among the slowest to report all its election results. Florida, the third-most populous state, is generally among the first to finish.

The Constitution sets out broad principles for electing a national government and leaves the details to the states. The choices made by state lawmakers and election officials as they sort out those details affect everything from how voters cast a ballot, how quickly the tabulation and release of results takes place, how elections are kept secure and how officials maintain voters’ confidence in the process.

The gap between when California and Florida are able to finalize their count is the natural result of election officials in the two states choosing to emphasize different concerns and set different priorities.

How California counts

Lawmakers in California designed their elections to improve accessibility and increase turnout. Whether it’s automatically receiving a ballot at home, having up until Election Day to turn it in or having several days to address any problems that may arise with their ballot, Californians have a lot of time and opportunity to vote. It comes at the expense of knowing the final vote counts soon after polls close.

“Our priority is trying to maximize participation of actively registered voters,” said Democratic Assemblymember Marc Berman, who authored the 2021 bill that permanently switched the state to all-mail elections. “What that means is things are a little slower. But in a society that wants immediate gratification, I think our democracy is worth taking a little time to get it right and to create a system where everyone can participate.”

California, which has long had a culture of voting absentee, started moving toward all-mail elections last decade. All-mail systems will almost always prolong the count. Mail ballots require additional verification steps — each must be opened individually, validated and processed — so they can take longer to tabulate than ballots cast in person that are then fed into a scanner at a neighborhood polling place.

In 2016, California passed a bill allowing counties to opt in to all-mail elections before instituting it statewide on a temporary basis in 2020 and enshrining it in law in time for the 2022 elections.

Studies found that the earliest states to institute all-mail elections – Oregon and Washington – saw higher turnout. Mail ballots also increase the likelihood of a voter casting a complete ballot, according to Melissa Michelson, a political scientist and dean at California’s Menlo College who has written on voter mobilization.

In recent years, the thousands of California voters who drop off their mail ballots on Election Day created a bottleneck on election night. In the past five general elections, California has tabulated an average of 38% of its vote after Election Day. Two years ago, in the 2022 midterm elections, half the state’s votes were counted after Election Day.

Slower counts have come alongside later mail ballot deadlines. In 2015, California implemented its first postmark deadline, meaning that the state can count mail ballots that arrive after Election Day as long as the Postal Service receives the ballot by Election Day. Berman said the postmark deadline allows the state to treat the mailbox as a drop box in order to avoid punishing voters who cast their ballots properly but are affected by postal delays.

Initially, the law said ballots that arrived within three days of the election would be considered cast in time. This year, ballots may arrive up to a week after Election Day, so California won’t know how many ballots have been cast until Nov. 12. This deadline means that California will be counting ballots at least through that week because ballots arriving up to that point might still be valid and be added to the count.

How Florida counts

Florida’s election system is geared toward quick and efficient tabulation. Coming out of its disastrous 2000 presidential election, when the U.S. Supreme Court settled a recount dispute and George W. Bush was declared the winner in the state over Al Gore, the state moved to standardize its election systems and clean up its canvass, or the process of confirming votes cast and counted.

Republican Rep. Bill Posey, who as state senator was the sponsor of the Florida Election Reform Act of 2001, said the two goals of the law — to count all legal votes and to ensure voters are confident their votes are counted — were accomplished by mandating optical ballot scanners in every precinct. That “most significant” change means no more “hanging chads” in Florida. The scanners read and aggregate results from paper ballots, immediately spitting back any that contain mistakes.

Florida’s deadlines are set to avoid having ballots arrive any later than when officials press “go” on the tabulator machines. The state has a receipt deadline for its absentee ballots, which means ballots that do not arrive by 7 p.m. local time on Election Day are not counted, regardless of when they were mailed.

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Michael T. Morley, a professor of election law at Florida State University College of Law, pointed out that Florida election officials may begin processing ballots, but not actually count them, before polls close. That helps speed up the process, especially compared with states that don’t allow officials to process mail ballots before Election Day.

“They can determine the validity of ballots, confirm they should be counted and run them through machines,” Morley said. “They just can’t press the tally button.”

Florida takes steps to avoid a protracted back-and-forth on potentially problematic ballots. At the precinct, optical scanners catch some problems, such as a voter selecting too many candidates, that can be fixed on-site. Also, any voter who’s returned a mail ballot with a mismatched or missing signature has until 5 p.m. two days after the election to submit an affidavit fixing it. California gives voters up to four weeks after the election to address such inconsistencies.

Read more about how U.S. elections work at Explaining Election 2024, a series from The Associated Press aimed at helping make sense of the American democracy. The AP receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By MIKE CATALINI

Rows of folding tables and empty chairs appear on Ballot Processing View 2. Over on Tabulation View 2, a man in a black T-shirt and shorts is seen shuffling papers near a waist-high machine.

The livestream scenes from Maricopa County, Arizona, of the 2024 election process may not be the most riveting video. But the feeds, already online, and other live videos like it streaming from election sites across the country have a serious aim. They are an effort by election officials to demystify voting and provide greater transparency to a process that in recent years has been subject to intense scrutiny, misinformation and false claims of widespread fraud.

The increase in livestreaming the election process, an operation conducted by local governments nationwide, reflects a broader rise in video streams online, according to Wendy Underhill, election and redistricting director at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

There is a concern, however, among officials that people unfamiliar with what’s happening in a livestream could misunderstand what they’re watching and reach misleading conclusions.

Here is a closer look at who is streaming elections and what you might see if you tune in.

Which states livestream elections?

National elections are run at the local level. There’s not a uniform standard or rule requiring live video feeds, but several jurisdictions, including large ones and those in battleground states, run livestreams. Among them are Philadelphia, Los Angeles County and Washington’s King County.

Arizona is an outlier because it has a state law requiring its counties to livestream the elections process, Underhill said.

If you want to understand more about whether your local government is providing a livestream, get involved by contacting them, said Tammy Patrick, chief program officer for the National Association of Elections Officials and a former Maricopa County elections official.

What can I expect if I watch?

That will vary by location. For example, Arizona offers various views of different parts of the process, from ballot drop boxes to tabulation rooms.

Other places, like Philadelphia, haven’t begun streaming yet. The city is set to begin streaming on Election Day, Nov. 5., at 7 a.m. EST.

One thing the streams will likely have in common is that the election processes they show can be slow-moving — the kind of methodical material that few would consider must-see TV.

People should be patient as officials deal with an array of circumstances, including having to drive ballots from polling places to processing centers, said Jennifer Morrell, CEO and co-founder of The Elections Group. It’s made up of former state and local election officials who offer training and other support to officials across the country.

In part because of technology, people are used to many things happening almost automatically, she said, but there are just the “logistical realities” that could make the process take longer. She warned against viewers making assumptions based on something they see on a livestream or a single moment in the vote-counting process, noting that leads can shift and a candidate who may be winning at one point in the count could be losing hours later.

That isn’t an indication of fraud. “I would just really emphasize that people have to be patient,” she said.

How do I know what I’m seeing?

That’s perhaps the biggest question and a potential hurdle to transparency, Patrick said.

Officials have learned since 2020, when livestreaming grew in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, that voters might not know or understand what they’re watching on a screen, she said.

“The more transparent we can be, the better off it is,” Patrick said. “When you are transparent, it does not mean that individuals will necessarily know what they’re seeing or understand what they’re seeing.”

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It could provide fodder for someone to take something out of context. In part to address that, some places have begun adding signs to explain what elections workers are doing, so viewers have a better idea of what’s happening on screen, Patrick said.

A solution, Patrick suggested, is to get involved: Contact local and state officials, sign up for tours, ask to be a poll worker.

“There are plenty of roles where you can educate yourself on all the safeguards that are in place to protect the system, to make sure that it’s eligible voters that are participating,” she said. “And that’s, quite frankly, I think the best way to get involved. But you have to be willing to accept the facts and the truth.”

Read more about how U.S. elections work at Explaining Election 2024, a series from The Associated Press aimed at helping make sense of the American democracy. The AP receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By LEAH ASKARINAM

WASHINGTON (AP) — Election night in the United States is a bit like a jigsaw puzzle, except that only one piece appears at a time, and you don’t get to look at the picture on the box.

As thousands of counties and towns report vote totals, it can be hard to figure out when the results reported so far will reflect the outcome.

The first report of the night might show a massive lead for one candidate, but why does that lead dwindle in some races and grow in others? Why does a single vote update from a big city sometimes confirm the winner when there’s still a substantial number of votes left to count? What’s the difference between a “mirage” and a real outcome?

Past elections can provide a guide.

FILE – Alan Zumel, an employee at The Abbey Food & Bar, watches presidential election coverage on a television above the bar, Thursday, Nov. 5, 2020, in West Hollywood, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

They show that mail-in votes in recent elections have leaned heavily toward Democrats and that in some states, counties report those ballots first. That can create a “blue mirage” in races that end up being only narrow victories for Democrats or even substantial victories for Republicans. They show that Republicans can lose big cities overwhelmingly and still win the election.

Even so, sometimes the usual rules and patterns get thrown out the window, either because of unexpected changes to the state’s administration process or major swings in voter behavior.

Some recent examples in key states can help provide some idea of what to expect between the time that polls close in Florida early in the evening all the way through Arizona, where polls close at 10 p.m. EST.

Florida

The first clues of how election night is going usually come from Florida. Results start coming in at 7 p.m. EST even though the final polls don’t close in the state until 8 p.m. EST.

Not every state makes clear when it releases vote updates whether the reports include mail-in ballots, early in-person or Election Day ballots. But when states do provide that information, or enough clues are available to figure it out on our own, it’s hugely helpful in figuring out why the vote count looks like it does at that moment.

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Florida law requires each county to report its early and absentee ballots first. That includes mail-in ballots, which lean heavily Democratic.

Over the past two election cycles, Democrats have tended to vote by mail more than Republicans. That means the first results reported often look stronger for Democratic candidates than the eventual outcome. Then, as the votes cast on Election Day trickle in, Republicans start seeing much more favorable results.

Take the 2022 Senate race, when Republican Sen. Marco Rubio faced a challenge from Democrat Val Demings.

Demings won an early update in Broward County, giving her a lead of nearly 30 percentage points at the beginning of the night. But she lost an update two minutes later in Miami-Dade County, a particularly concerning sign for Democrats because these early updates should be the votes that are most favorable to them. In the end, Demings lost her lead as more Election Day votes and more votes from Republican-leaning areas were counted. Rubio won reelection, 58% to 41%.

Virginia

While the first votes of the night should favor Democrats in Florida, the order of events in Virginia tends to vary depending on what each county decides to do.

There are no strict rules dictating how counties should release results. But in past elections, early returns favored Republicans until the big cities and large northern Virginia suburbs reported their results, which took hours.

In Virginia and in most other states, Republican voters are more spread out geographically than Democratic voters, who are concentrated in major population hubs. So throughout the night, while the major Democratic-leaning counties were still counting votes, smaller counties, which tend to lean Republican, had already started reporting their votes.

In 2020, Republican Donald Trump led Democrat Joe Biden for five hours after polls closed on election night before heavily Democratic Fairfax County reported a nearly 400,000-vote update about 12:30 a.m. EST. Biden won Virginia that year by a margin of 10 percentage points.

Georgia

Georgia allows counties to begin counting absentee ballots on Election Day. By the time polls close, some counties already have major batches of votes ready to report.

Those first reports are often disproportionately favorable to Democrats. Then, prepare to wait for a while. After the first reports, it may be hours before the rest of the state starts sending in results as they continue to count votes, meaning that blue mirage could stick around for quite a while.

In 2022, the Senate election went to a runoff, because neither candidate received 50%. Democrat Raphael Warnock did end up with a single percentage point lead by the time votes were certified in the general election.

This fall, the State Election Board approved a new rule that requires poll workers to hand count the number of ballots cast — not the actual votes — after voting is complete. Critics, including GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, worried the rule would delay the reporting of election results.

Ohio

FILE – A bowl of voting stickers for early voters is shown March 15, 2020, in Steubenville, Ohio. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

In the 2022 Ohio Senate race, Rep. Tim Ryan started out with an early lead when Franklin County, home to the state capital of Columbus, reported its first batch of ballots of the night, which went 74% to 26% for Ryan over Republican JD Vance, now Trump’s running mate. That was the high point for Ryan. In the end, he carried Franklin with slightly less of the vote — about two-thirds — and lost the race statewide.

So why was his lead so much bigger early in the night?

Again, it’s all about mail-in ballots. Ohio releases its pre-Election Day votes first thing on election night, including mail-in votes. Like in other races since 2022, mail-in votes tended to lean toward Democrats. As Election Day votes trickled in, Republican JD Vance took the lead and eventually won by 6 points.

North Carolina

In the 2022 Senate race, about a half hour after polls closed in North Carolina, Democrat Cheri Beasley had a lead of nearly 200,000 votes. By midnight, Republican Ted Budd had a lead of over 150,000 votes.

North Carolina counts nearly all its ballots on election night. The first reports of the night in most North Carolina counties will be the results of mail ballots, followed by early in-person votes. Later updates will include results from ballots cast on Election Day. North Carolina has a history of counting its Election Day vote pretty quickly, so if a blue mirage does arise from those first reports, it might not last very long.

It’s unclear how vote counting may be affected by emergency changes put in place in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, which ravaged western parts of the state. Among other changes, the North Carolina State Board of Elections said voters in 13 counties affected by Helene may drop off their ballots at voting sites on Election Day in addition to county elections offices. The ballots still must be turned in by 7:30 p.m. on Election Day in order to count.

Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania followed the same pattern as Georgia and Ohio in 2022.

Initial vote updates, which included a big chunk of mail-in ballots, gave Democrat John Fetterman a lopsided advantage before votes from Republicans began to narrow the gap in the Senate race. The state had reported even before poll closing that more than 7 in 10 mail ballots returned before Election Day came from registered Democrats.

Republican Mehmet Oz began to catch up as more of the rural and Election Day votes were tabulated. But those votes weren’t enough to overcome Fetterman’s lead.

When the AP called Fetterman the winner, he led by 2 percentage points. The AP estimated there were more than 800,000 votes left to be counted, but most of them were in counties where Fetterman was winning by large margins: Philadelphia and the surrounding counties of Delaware, Bucks and Montgomery. But the way Pennsylvania counts its votes could lead to a blue mirage, a red mirage, or both — at different times in the evening. Pennsylvania doesn’t require counties to report their mail-in votes first, and they aren’t allowed to start processing those votes until Election Day.

In the 2020 presidential election, Biden took a massive lead as pre-Election Day votes were counted, then Trump took a huge lead as Election Day votes were counted, and then Biden eventually regained his narrow margin as more mail votes were counted.

Wisconsin

In Wisconsin, municipalities report their vote totals to counties, and each city can choose how to report its results. Most combine mail-in ballots with Election Day votes, but some, including Milwaukee, release them separately. That dilutes the chances of a mirage but also adds an element of unpredictability.

The city of Milwaukee reports Election Day votes before mail-in votes. That can make it difficult to know how many votes remain to be counted there until election officials give specific information about how many mail ballots remain or confirm that they have been counted already.

In Wisconsin, information about the last votes to come from Milwaukee, which typically reports into wee hours of Wednesday morning, is often necessary to determine the winner in close races.

Michigan

FILE – Wendy Gill inserts her absentee ballot at a drop-off box as the sun sets on Election Day outside City Hall in Warren, Mich., Nov. 3, 2020. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

As in Wisconsin, there’s no universal pattern in Michigan for when counties report their mail ballots. That often makes geography a better indicator of the direction of a race than vote type.

The key to a close race in Michigan is to wait for Wayne, Oakland, and Washtenaw counties to release significant batches of votes before jumping to any conclusions. Wayne includes Detroit, while Oakland is made up of the city’s northern suburbs. Washtenaw County is home to Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan.

Michigan doesn’t permit absentee ballots to be counted until the morning of Election Day and warns on its elections website that high numbers of absentee ballots usually prolongs the counting process by hours if not days.

Arizona

FILE – Voters wait in line to vote at their polling station early, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, in Tempe, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York, File)

Arizona won’t report votes until an hour after polls close, due to the state law. But that means when that first update comes in, it’s pretty big. Historically, about half of the state’s total votes are reported in the first update.

That update, like in many other states, has tended to lean heavily Democratic in recent elections because it includes mail ballots cast well before Election Day. That gap usually narrows as Election Day votes are counted. But after that, things take a more complicated turn in Arizona than in other states.

Ballots counted after Election Day include “late earlies” — the last-arriving mail ballots that include those dropped off on Election Day. Those ballots heavily favored Trump in 2020.

But in the 2022 Senate race, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly took the lead in the first update, when Maricopa County, the state’s most populous county and home to Phoenix, released 837,000 ballots in its first report. He maintained that initial lead, even though it narrowed, when Election Day votes were reported. Votes counted after election night failed to eat into his advantage.

Read more about how U.S. elections work at Explaining Election 2024, a series from The Associated Press aimed at helping make sense of the American democracy. The AP receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.