Here's Why We Don't Have Final Election Results In NJ

NEW JERSEY - While some Garden State residents are reveling in a perceived victory or lamenting a possible defeat there are many who are confused and angry about why the 2020 election results are not finalized. But in truth, we never have official winners and losers on election night.

And the global pandemic has only slowed the process down.

Historically, projected winners are chosen on election night based off of the available vote count provided by the county board of elections throughout New Jersey. Those are not complete counts, which is why all responsible reporting on the elections place the qualifier "unofficial results" in their copy.

Official results, verified by the county clerks, usually arrive within a few days or a week after election day.

Enter COVID

The coronavirus pandemic which has hamstrung the world since March has another unanticipated impact on our Democratic process. It slowed it down. The constraints of COVID-19 increased the number of vote-by-mail and provisional ballots not only in New Jersey but across the nation as many officials deemed electronic voting unsafe due to the deadly disease.

And that impact extended vote collection and slowed down vote tabulation.

For example, Gov. Phil Murphy and the legislature made the Nov. 3 election "primarily" vote-by-mail back in August. Multiple secure drop boxes were installed around New Jersey and ballots were sent out to every registered voter.

Citizens were given the option to drop their ballot off in the drop box, mail it from their mailbox and drop it off in person at their polling local board of elections or at the one in-person voting location open in their municipality. Those that didn't want to use those ballots were allowed to vote by provisional ballot at the polling station while those with ADA needs were given electronic polling assistance.

These factors, along with a hotly contested presidential race, drove participation up exponentially.

Deadline Extensions

Also coming into play were deadline extensions decided upon by the legislature. Every state in America has the right to put balloting extensions in place and many did. In Pennsylvania, they accepted mail-in ballots through Friday. In New Jersey, mail-in ballots postmarked on Election Day were being accepted through Tuesday, Nov. 10.

And provisional ballots, they won't be looked at until Wednesday, Nov. 11.

The Count

The count of each vote is done by the local board of elections and it requires a signature verification and the votes are handled by members of both parties. This is not new, but the volume of votes slows down the tabulation process, signature verification process and the sending of the cure letters that remedy any signature issues.

For these reasons, the official and final results on the 2020 election in New Jersey will is expected to be delivered on or about Nov. 20.

Between now and then, news organizations are updating counts based off of the latest numbers shared by the county clerks. Some of those numbers are updated on a regular schedule, while many are not.

Patch will continue to update our stories as we get new numbers and will post final election results when they are certified on or about Nov. 20.

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