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Certification and recounts
Election night numbers are unofficial. The count, the check and the certificate come after.
What networks report are unofficial counts. Mail ballots, provisional ballots and ballots being cured can still be added for days.
All steps in text
- What networks report are unofficial counts. Mail ballots, provisional ballots and ballots being cured can still be added for days.
- Counties check every total against the records and reconcile them. This takes days to weeks and is set by state law.
- Triggered automatically when the margin is below a state threshold, often half a percent, or on request. Recounts rarely move more than a few hundred votes.
- State officials certify the result by a legal deadline. For Congress, each chamber is the final judge of its own members’ elections.
- A contest must point to specific errors and meet strict deadlines. Courts do not re-run elections.