How long will it take to count the votes?

The odds are increasing that the 2024 election may take longer to decide than the drawn-out drama of 2020.

In all seven battleground states, less than a single percentage point currently separates the major-party candidates. Each one of those states could involve recounts, extensive litigation, and the discovery of irregularities. Mail-in ballots, which represented over 40 percent of ballots in 2020, are notoriously slow to count, and the ballot-security measures (or lack thereof) surrounding them are controversial.

Recall that in 2020, the Associated Press didn’t declare Joe Biden the winner until the Saturday after the election.

Politicalwire.com reminds us just how drawn out and stressful the process was:

Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin were called one day after the election.

Nevada and Pennsylvania were called four days after the election.

Georgia was called nine days later.

North Carolina was called ten days later.

And let’s not forget that most of us remember the 2000 election, which was not decided for 46 days. It wasn’t until the eve of the meeting of the Electoral College in mid December that George W. Bush was declared the winner of Florida by 531 votes and thus the next president.