The deadline to submit updated voter registration rolls and at least two weeks of hours worked at polling locations has passed for Florida, Colorado, Kentucky, Maine, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Utah, and West Virginia.
Counties across the country have until Oct. 19 to finish counting provisional ballots. If there is not enough time to count them, local officials are supposed to request a federal court to force a federal official’s hand count of these ballots. A judge will review these requests.
How fast can ballots be tabulated and tallied in a state?
Counties generally have a 90-day window from Election Day to conduct a count.
But with polling at times long after midnight in many places, it could take longer to tally ballots than the official election.
What does this mean for the Electoral College?
The race is extremely close in some states. In Arizona, for example, President Trump leads Hillary Clinton by less than the popular vote.
If Trump wins Arizona, his two electoral votes would assure him victory in the White House with 304 votes, compared to Clinton’s 232.
In a statewide election, the electoral vote tally could be close, like Florida, where the margin is less than 1 percent. Florida’s 38 electoral votes would go to Trump, while Clinton would pick up two electoral votes from Nevada.
