While it will "absolutely not" take a week to tabulate the results, Raffensperger assured Brennan, overseas ballots could still take time. "What we will be waiting for is the overseas ballots that come in no later than Friday. And so those will then be the final numbers. And we'll just see if that makes a difference in the total vote totals," he explained.
Arizona
“It could take around two weeks to learn the results of some races in Arizona’s upcoming November elections, something election officials from around the state say is completely normal.
Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates said Arizona’s status as a swing state brings extra focus on how long it takes to count votes, even though many states take weeks to finalize election results.
Gates said he expects 95% of ballots in his county to be tabulated by the end of the week after the Nov. 5 election but said it takes an average of 10 to 13 days to finalize the count in Maricopa County, which became a hotbed of disproven voter fraud conspiracy theories in the wake of the 2020 election.
“It unfortunately does lead to people speculating about what might be going on,” Gates said. “But number one, I come back to this, I will 100 out of 100 times take accuracy over speed.”
Several factors can lead to those delays, including a rule in Arizona allowing voters to drop off early ballots on Election Day.
“That is a right that folks have in Arizona,” Gates said. “We anticipate anywhere from 300,000 to 500,000 of these mail in ballots will be dropped off on Election Day.”
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North Carolina
That NewsNation piece referenced McCoy's sentiment that North Carolina could be called between 10 pm on election night and midnight.
Reuters mentioned the midnight timeline, but warned it could still take days. "If the election is as close as polls suggest, the outcome in North Carolina may remain unclear for a week or more. Absentee ballots that arrive on Nov. 5, as well as ballots from overseas and military voters, are tallied during the 10-day canvass period that follows Election Day," the piece mentioned.
Nevada
Even more infuriating? The state accepts late-arriving mail ballots within four days, as Reuters mentioned.
Pennsylvania
As Matt pointed out about the thread above, it's "how conspiracy theories and questions about the election results begin[.]"
Michigan
While on "Face the Nation," Benson shared how the race for her state had been called on the Wednesday after the election at 8:00 pm in 2020, and they're "tracking that again this year," though she's "optimistic" they may find out even earlier this year.
"I would estimate, end of the day on Wednesday, as the best guess on how we'll perform. But that said, we will always prioritize accuracy and security over efficiency," Benson shared.
Brennan also brought up Musk, feeling the need to mention politics by reminding that Musk "is a big supporter of Donald Trump." She then opened the door for Benson to rant about threats to democracy, asking, "What do you believe his intention is here? And how concerned are you that he's misleading voters?"
"One, we know adversaries to democracy right now are trying to create chaos and confusion and sow seeds of distrust around our very clear and legitimate and accurate and secure processes of running elections, not just in Michigan but around the country," Benson said. "So it's incumbent upon all of us to look to trusted sources of information like your local election official and use data to evaluate questions, as opposed to people who are running social media companies with particular agendas and who have a history in amplifying conspiracy theories and false information," she continued.
Wisconsin
Reuters made note of delays with mail-in ballots, as is the case with Pennsylvania:
“Like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin is among the few states that do not allow election officials to process or count mail ballots until the morning of the election, which means there can be a delay in reporting the results of those early votes.
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In addition, many of the state's largest cities transport mail ballots to a centralized location for processing and tabulating. That can lead to significant batches of votes getting reported all at once in the early morning after polls close.
The Daily Signal's Tony Kinnett has been predicting that we may find out the results not so long after Election Day. After mentioning it on "The Tony Kinnett Cast" this week, he posted his theory of Wednesday at 1 pm, which also shows Trump winning 312 electoral votes to Harris' 226 votes.