New Yorkers learned the statewide results of the presidential contest on Tuesday just moments after the polls closed at 9 p.m. (the AP swiftly called the state for former Vice President Joe Biden) but they will have to wait days, probably weeks, for answers on several down-ballot races yet to be called. The most time-consuming part of the process will involve counting tens of thousands of absentee ballots, which will begin on Monday, November 9th.
It is no small undertaking: the Board of Elections has received back more than 350,000 absentee ballots, with more than 1.1 million absentee ballot applications processed. These numbers will change, with the Board offering daily updates starting on Friday. But there are several steps before the counting, and several after. Here’s a primer on ballot counting in New York City:
Candidates and the legal teams get organized
Candidates are entitled to oversee the counting process. The re-canvass of early voting and Election Day scanners begins Wednesday, essentially checking that all in-person votes were counted and finalizing the vote totals. The campaigns must inform the Board of Elections of any plans to observe the process to ensure there is sufficient space for social distancing. This canvassing will proceed concurrently with other counting procedures until it is complete.
As absentee ballots arrive, the Board may contact you if there’s a problem with yours
After thousands of New York voters saw their absentee ballots voided in the June primary because they neglected to sign the back of their oath envelope, the State Board of Elections was forced to enact what’s called a cure process. The Board is now required to contact a voter, via mail, email, or phone to alert them if there is a “curable defect” with their absentee ballot, like a missing signature.
Once the Board reaches the voter, the person has five days to address the problem and prevent their ballot from being tossed out. This will continue while absentee ballots continue to come in through November 10th.
Candidates must request any copies of those oath envelopes or cure affirmations that could be used as part of challenging ballots as Board counts, or in court, by 5 p.m. on Friday, November 6th.
Absentee ballot counting begins on Monday
Ballots that arrive on Wednesday from the postal service will be presumed to have been mailed on time and will count regardless of the postmark. All others sent by mail must be postmarked by Election Day and arrive by November 10th. The Board also collected thousands of ballots at drop-boxes at voting sites. Those ballots will be scanned by the Board and added to the pool for counting, unless they need to contact a voter to cure a defect.
Bipartisan teams from the Board of Elections will be at sites in each of the boroughs where the count will be conducted at tables assigned by AD/ED. Candidates have the option to challenge whether a ballot is counted but they have a narrow window of time to do so. The Board does not handle challenges related to allegations of fraud, those must be handled by the courts.
The counting process continues seven days a week until it's done.
Barring any court ordered delays, the Board will plow ahead with its counting to meet its state certification deadline of November 28th.
This means results in uncalled races may be weeks away.
Two of the most competitive races in the city are in overlapping congressional and State Senate districts. In New York’s 11th congressional district, which includes all of Staten Island and a portion of Brooklyn, incumbent Democrat Max Rose trails Republican Assemblymember Nicole Malliotakis by 37,158 votes, according to the unofficial tally of Election Day and early voting returns. The Board has received 41,000 absentee ballots as well. Not all of these votes will count and, even though more ballots will come in, it means the Rose campaign would need nearly all of them to break in their favor to close that gap.
Experts generally advise that absentee ballots follow the split of machine votes, but the COVID-19 pandemic has upended conventional wisdom and it’s impossible to know. That said, a Rose concession could come before the count is completed if it becomes clear there is no numerical path to victory.
Similarly, in State Senate District 22, which snakes through southwest Brooklyn from Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst to Marine Park, incumbent Democrat Andrew Gounardes trails his challenger, Republican Vito Bruno, by 6,000 votes. Nearly 40,000 absentee ballot applications were processed in that race and 12,744 ballots have been returned. Those numbers may give more hope to the Gournades campaign that they could eek out a win, but the margins will be close.
