Election results aren’t on demand. That’s ok.

November 5 may be election day. But it should not be associated with “results” day.

We’ve spent months watching political ads, speeches, and Instagram reels. It may be easy to seek instant gratification from election results and move on to the next thing, but it’s important to remember that election results take time. 

There have been bi-partisan efforts to speed up the preliminary ballot review process, but these efforts have ultimately been killed by Republicans in the State Senate.

So, here’s a few things to know. 

What happens on Election Day

In Wisconsin, polls are open from 7am – 8pm. When polls close, poll workers in each municipality start tabulating their preliminary election results. But each municipal clerk can decide how it reports its results to their county, which leads to a variance in timing. 

Election Day is also the first day that municipalities can start processing any absentee ballots that were returned. 

Milwaukee, the largest city in the state, historically has reported its in-person votes before reporting its absentee ballots. This review can be lengthy and take some time. In 2020, the Associated Press called Wisconsin for Biden after 2pm on the afternoon after the election. This year, Milwaukee has over 100,000 absentee ballots to process. 

Ballot review and certification

It’s important to remember that any results heard on Election Night or in the immediate aftermath are strictly unofficial. Ballots go through three levels of inspection — local, county, and state — before the outcome is recognized as official. After Election Day, officials in each municipality have until November 11 to confirm and process every ballot that is cast — that includes early votes, absentee ballots, overseas and military ballots, provisional ballots, and those cast on Election Day. This is called a canvas.

At 9am on November 12, each county election board certifies the canvas from all of those municipal clerks, and they have until November 19 to submit this certification to the Wisconsin Election Commission. 

The final inspection or canvas is done by the Wisconsin Election Commission before certifying the state’s results. This must be done on or before December 1.

Safeguards

If a county clerk refuses to submit or certify its election results, as some states saw in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 voting, Wisconsin has safeguards in place to ensure our results adhere to state and federal guidelines. The Wisconsin Election Commission can dispatch a special messenger to the county clerk to retrieve them. Affected parties, the Wisconsin Elections Commission, or the state attorney general, can also ask a court to order the certifying officials to perform their public duties.

If a clerk still refuses to comply with a court order, state officials can impose penalties.