Election 2020: When To Expect Results In Colorado, Rest Of U.S.

Between 70 and 80 percent of Coloradans' ballots will be counted by Tuesday night, the Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said. While counties began to process ballots before Election Day, initial results will not be reported until after polls close at 7 p.m.

“In Colorado, county clerks process ballots prior to election day, which enables a high percentage of results to be reported on Election Night. But Election Night results are never final results,” Griswold said in a statement.

“In the days after Election Day, military and overseas voters return their ballots, signature discrepancies can be fixed, and a risk-limiting audit is conducted to determine statistical confidence in the results. Like any election, there is quite a bit of activity after Election Day.”

The website FiveThirtyEight provides an infographic that lets voters know which states will be able to announce unofficial results Tuesday night for the presidential race.

"We should get near-complete results in Florida in a matter of hours; Arizona and North Carolina will release the vast majority of their ballots very quickly, although if the race is too close to call they may not provide a final answer for days," FiveThirtyEight analysts said.

"Georgia and Texas should tally most ballots on Nov. 3, but counting may stretch into Wednesday or Thursday. We should know the winner in Wisconsin by Wednesday morning; Michigan and Pennsylvania, by contrast, will probably take until the end of the week."

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In Colorado, results are not reported based on how ballots are cast — for example, ballots cast in-person are not reported separately or before ballots returned by mail or drop box.

In past elections, Colorado has been able to provide more than 75 percent of results on Election Night; however, that percentage "may be impacted by the unique circumstances surrounding this year’s election and high turnout," the Colorado Secretary of State said.

Ballots are processed faster if they're cast before Tuesday, and the higher percentage can be reported on Election Night. As of Thursday night, 2,279,059 ballots had been returned to county clerks — 79.8 percent of the total turnout in the 2016 General Election.

When polls close at 7 p.m., counties will begin uploading results to the state’s centralized Election Night Reporting system, and to the contingency election results site. Those results are then posted on various pages on the Colorado Secretary of State’s website, including the home page and GoVoteColorado. Counties may post results to their websites, but are not required to do so. If a court extends polling hours in any county, results will not be posted by the Secretary of State’s Office until polls are closed in every county.

After Election Day, voters in Colorado have a "cure period" to fix issues with their ballots, including discrepant signatures. Cures, mailed military and overseas ballots are due by Nov. 12, and counties will then have until Nov. 13 to process cured ballots and overseas and military voter ballots. The Secretary of State’s Office will then oversee the state’s risk-limiting audit, which "provides a high level of statistical confidence in the results of the election," the office said.

If they are necessary, recounts can occur in the weeks following the election, and official results won't be confirmed until mid-December. If there are no recounts, results will be certified as official on Nov. 30, officials said.