Will NJ Residents Know Midterm Election Results Before Going To Bed?

NEW JERSEY — Remember Election Day 2020, when the presidential race wasn’t called until four days later? Or last year's gubernatorial election that was too close to call that night?

New Jersey residents may want to settle in for a longer wait for results than they’re accustomed to due to a number of razor-thin races and other factors in the high-stakes 2022 midterm elections. While new election protocols may speed things up in New Jersey, several pivotal states could take longer to tally votes.

It was two weeks before the final race in the 2020 election was called, according to an analysis by The New York Times. It’s important to keep in mind that results in the highly decentralized U.S. elections are unofficial until they can be canvassed and certified. They inevitably change as more ballots are counted.

Different states have different rules on the time allotted to count mail ballots. Some states give local officials several weeks before Election Day to process ballots, including checking signatures and verifying identification information. Others delay counting until polls close, which means results may not be known until Wednesday or later.

Most states require mail-in ballots to be received on or before Election Day, but 19 allow a grace period as long as they’re postmarked on Election Day. In California, for example, such ballots can be received up to seven days later.

In New Jersey, where Joe Biden secured 57.3 percent of votes, results in the 2020 election were known on Election Night. Other states required longer, with Georgia taking 16 days to call.

The Garden State has several pivotal races on the ballot this year, including all of its House seats and local races throughout. Polls close at 8 p.m. Tuesday. If you're in line by that time, you can vote.

• Read more: NJ Midterm Elections: The Biggest Races, How To Cast Your Vote

For its analysis, The Times asked election officials in every state and Washington, D.C., what they expect to happen this year, and whether any rules had changed in two years that could affect how votes are counted and reported.

Recent changes could speed up vote tallies in New Jersey. The state didn't offer early, in-person voting in 2020, and a significant number of ballots came in by mail because of pandemic protocols. Election officials can receive mail-in ballots up to six days after polls close as long as it's postmarked on or before 8 p.m. Election Day. New Jersey voters automatically received a mail-in ballot in 2020, whereas now they have to request one.

While close races may take longer to determine, New Jersey counties can pre-process ballots before Election Day — an action not permitted during the 2021 elections.

It’s also important to note that not knowing the results of the election before bedtime says nothing about the fairness of the election or the accuracy of results. There are other reasons for possible delays on Election Night.

• Related: Why Midterm Election Results May Not Be Known Right Away

While 2020 was an extraordinary year with an unprecedented crush of legal challenges, 2022 could bring more of the same, further delaying an official call on races. Republican Party officials have already filed lawsuits to disqualify thousands of mail ballots in swing states Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, The Washington Post reported.

The volume of ballots to be processed also slowed things down in 2020, when nearly more than 158.4 million people, or 62.8 percent of eligible voters, cast ballots in the highest voter turnout in decades.

In the last midterm election in 2018, about 52 percent of voting-age U.S. voting age turned out, according to an analysis by Pew Research Center based on Census Bureau estimates of the 2020 voting-age population.

Some political analysts predict heavy turnout in the 2022 midterms. Pew Research Center said a recent survey showed 72 percent of registered voters say they’re "extremely" or "very" motivated to vote this year, and 65 percent say it "really matters" which party wins control of Congress — a level roughly on par with the run-up to the 2018 vote.

However, state voting-law changes since 2020 could have a big effect on turnout. Some states have rolled back early voting, absentee or mail-in voting and other rule changes that made voting easier in at the height of the pandemic in 2020. Others have adopted new rules that made voting more difficult or inconvenient, and others have expanded ballot access.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.