JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Election night could well stretch into the following days. That does not mean anything nefarious is happening because it could take time to accurately count the votes.
So when counting begins — after polls close at 7 p.m. Election Day — how do you know it’s accurate?
Duval County Supervisor of Elections Mike Hogan explained it starts with the machines keeping count at precincts and how those must be zeroed-out. Those machines also help expedite the process by automatically rejecting ballots with errors, so you know before leaving the poll that your ballot has been accepted. A rejected ballot could mean you've incorrectly filled-in the oval.
Hogan said in-person Election Day and early voting ballots go through that process in real-time. But he said it's mail-in ballots that if there's a discrepancy, a set of judges, one from each party, looks over to determine what the voter intended to do: partially filled-in ovals for example. Or the canvassing board will further examine.
There is another step required by law called an election audit. That requires election officials to re-count a race. It could any race on the ballot.
“This procedure requires us to then go pull all the ballots that were on that race in the precincts that it was in from early voting, Election Day and mail-in and then we have to hand count to make sure that number we have given the public is the verified," Hogan said.
There is also another trigger for accuracy as seen as recent as 2018: a recount.
When a Florida race is decided by less than 0.5 percent of the votes cast, ballots are checked again. In Georgia, if a race is decided by less than one percent, a candidate may file to request a recount.