Key points
- U.S. citizens abroad who are 18 or over as of November 5, 2024 are legally eligible to vote in the 2024 election
- American elections are largely governed and administered at the state level; Because of this the laws, procedures and even the timelines for submitting and counting votes vary by state which results in States moving at different speeds
- Citizenship status and eligibility of (abroad) voters is verified by the state in which they vote
- The number of votes cast and the margin of difference between the candidates are the key factors in how long it takes to call a race
- The increasing number of mail-in ballots, which need to be processed before being counted, and rules defining when that processing can begin, mean that when the race is close, it will take more time to determine a winner – which is exactly how the process is supposed to work
U.S. elections are state based but overseas voters have federal protections
In the United States, elections are largely governed and administered at the state level. Most of the laws and procedures that govern ballot return and vote counting are established by state legislatures, Secretaries of State, and state or county boards of elections. (Note that there are approximately 10,000 local election districts in the US.)
Running parallel to this highly decentralized system, federal rules do exist for voters who live abroad and participate in federal elections.
American citizens of voting age who live abroad are legally eligible to vote. Over the past half-century, this fact has been codified and affirmed in four federal acts, three of which were signed into law by Republican presidents. The acts in question are:
- 1975 - Overseas Citizens Voting Rights Act, signed by President Gerald Ford.
- 1986 - Uniformed and Overseas Citizen Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), signed by President Ronald Reagan.
- 2002 - Help America Vote (HAVA) Act signed by President George W. Bush.
- 2009 - Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act, signed by President Barack Obama.
The government program for administering voting for Americans abroad, both civilian and military, is called the Federal Voter Assistance Program. It is part of the Department of Defense.
How Vote Counting Works
… from your overseas vote to the next President of the United States
The steps that connect an overseas voter to the final outcome of the election in which they participate are outlined briefly below.
1. Register to vote as an overseas aka ‘UOCAVA’ voter
An American citizen living abroad should register as an abroad voter. They can do this on the website votefromabroad.org or on FVAP.org. The applicant fills out a federal post card application (FPCA) and confirms under penalty of perjury that the information in their application is accurate.
2. Submit FPCA /get verified
The FPCA application is submitted to the local elections office (LEO) in the state where the citizen votes. Their identity, citizenship status and eligibility are all checked and verified by their home state, based on eligibility requirements of their state. If the LEO confirms that the person attempting to register is an eligible voter, that person is sent a ballot packet. A major benefit of being a registered abroad voter is the legal right to receive the ballot pack via email.
3. Receive your ballot and vote
The voter fills out the ballot and sends it back to their home state, in accordance with the methods and deadlines set by their state. These vary dramatically by state! For instance, some states accept ballots electronically (via email, fax, or online portal) while others require signatures on hard copies that must be mailed or couriered to a specified address. The precise requirements of each state are available at votefromabroad.org
Registered UOCAVA voters may have different deadlines for ballot submission than in-state absentee voters, which is reflective of the fact that they need to allow more time for their ballot to arrive. For example, this year, Georgia accepts overseas ballots postmarked by November 5 and received by November 8.
4. Confirm your ballot was received
Voters can follow up with their local elections office to confirm that their ballot was received and accepted. Federal law also requires that states set up a free access system where overseas voters can see if their ballot was received.
5. Wait while your ballot is processed
In-person voting is straightforward. A voter arrives at a polling place, has their name checked off the precincts voter list, is given a ballot, and votes. If the voter’s name isn’t on the list, they typically can vote via provisional ballot.
Absentee voting requires more work to verify the voter’s identity, eligibility, and confirm that the submitted ballot belongs to the voter in question. Absentee ballots first need to be processed before they can be counted. Processing involves confirming the information on the envelope, verifying that the signature on the ballot matches the one on file, and (if necessary) removing the ballot from the envelope to prepare it for counting.
As mentioned above, the dates when election workers may begin processing ballots are determined by each state. For example, precincts in Michigan can begin processing eight days before election day. In Pennsylvania, absentee ballots cannot even be processed, much less counted, until election day. This is one of the main reasons it takes so long to determine final results in a state like Pennsylvania.
6. Wait some more while your ballot is counted
How votes are counted and how these numbers are reported depends on the rules of the state and the methods and technologies used in the election district.
Some precincts report their vote totals directly. Others must send results to a central location for tabulation, a step that can add more time. Lower-population rural precincts tend to tally and report their vote totals faster than denser urban precincts.
Mail-in ballots are sent to central locations, so counting them all - including the pre-processing work - takes more time than counting the votes of people who vote in person on Election Day.
Precinct totals are sent to the central elections office for that jurisdiction so they can be reported and posted on the appropriate website.
All these elements mean that vote totals will change over time as more votes from different precincts, or mail-in voters, are counted, and why you may go to bed with one candidate in the lead and wake up with that person behind.
7. Cure Your Ballot, if necessary
There can be small errors or discrepancies in the submission that the voter can fix, in a process called ‘curing’. In 2024, 30 states require election officials to notify voters in the event of a missing or mismatched signature and give them an opportunity to correct it. This means that voters whose ballots are in need of curing should receive an email or other communication from their LEO letting them know.
The deadlines for curing vary by state, but you can find them here. UOCAVA voters have particular challenges and needs in curing as they have to send their forms to cure their ballots back electronically if they are to meet the typically tight deadlines.
Curing is an important step, especially in close races where a small number of ballots can determine the outcome of a race.
8. Listen/watch as races are 'called'
This, of course, is what most of us are waiting for.
The role of unofficial, independent ‘caller’ of US election results has been entrusted to the Associated Press for the last 175 years.
The AP will have a team of approximately 4000 stringers (freelance journalists), analysts and reporters in counties all over the US doing things like monitoring live results, assessing vote counts, offering insights on historical voting trends, and more. At some point, the AP will call each statewide or federal race – meaning that AP will announce its finding that a given result is a statistical certainty. Sometimes this can be done quickly, but in close races in swing districts or states, it can take longer. In 2020, it took the AP four days to call the Presidential election for Joe Biden. (While other news organizations also do this as well, the AP’s decision is broadly regarded as the authoritative call in political circles.)
AP’s call of a given race is, or course, an unofficial result. The final, official result will come later when the election is certified.
9. If there is a recount, wait some more
If election results are close, recounts may take place. Some states have automatic recount laws. Arizona, for instance, requires a recount if the result is within half a percentage point of the total votes cast. Some states permit candidates to request a recount. The rules vary, but here is a brief list.
10. Certification of the official result
For the results to be official, each election must be certified by a legal entity. What or who this entity is - local election administrator, Secretary of State, County Elections Board, Canvassing Board - varies by states and sometimes within a given state.
Historically, this part of the election process has been largely ministerial. In 2020, though, in Nevada we saw for the first time an elections board refusing to certify results. Today, we are seeing an increase in challenges to the certification of results at the local level. The Georgia Supreme Court recently blocked a slate of new rules proposed by the state elections board which would have made it easier for local officials to refuse to certify.
11. Special procedures for a special election: President & VP of the USA
Of course, in the US, we don’t vote directly for the president or vice president – a fact confirmed by elections in 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, and 2016, where the electoral-vote winner lost the popular vote. We vote for electors to a constitutionally mandated body known as the Electoral College. This body is crucial to the certification of the result of the presidential election.
The number of electors in each state’s electoral college is equal to the size of its congressional delegation (senators plus representatives). Each of the presidential campaigns puts forward a list of people who could serve as members of that state’s electoral college if their side wins the popular vote in that state. The exceptions to this are Maine and Nebraska, where one elector is decided per Congressional district and two are allocated to the winner of the statewide vote.
While each state has its own deadlines, December 11, 2024 is the national deadline by which each state’s Governor must certify the state’s electors by confirming who won the State’s voters and therefore which slate of electors will serve in the Electoral College.
Contrary to popular misconception, the Electoral College never meets in person in its entirety in a single place. This year, the approved slate of electors will meet in their respective state capitols on December 17 to cast their votes for the presidential and vice presidential candidates who won their state's votes. Collectively, these meetings are the Electoral College.
Thirty-eight states have ‘faithless elector’ laws making casting votes for others than those elected by a state’s popular vote illegal. In 2022, Congress passed the Electoral Reform Act to prohibit the submission of competing slates of state electors and otherwise strengthen and clarify rules and roles in presidential elections.
On Jan 6, 2025, Congress will meet to formally count the votes from the Electoral College, and the Vice President will certify the presidential and vice presidential election of 2024.
Jan 20, 2025 the next president and VP will be inaugurated.