Last update:09 November 2024, 8:55 p.m. IST

Maricopa County estimates vote counting would last about 10 more days before every ballot is counted

President-elect Donald Trump won the 2024 US elections by defeating Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. (Image: AP/File)

The election results in Arizona swing statewhich will determine Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s final margin of victory over Democrat Kamala Harris, have not yet been announced. Early ballots that are cast on Election Day at polling places are responsible for this.

Add to that increasingly competitive competitions, and that means days of waiting for a definitive result. Maricopa County estimates the vote count would last about 10 more days before every ballot is counted. Arizona – with 11 electoral votes – has mixed things up in at least the last two elections.

Donald Trump won 301 electoral votes and Kamala Harris received 226. Trump broke the so-called “blue wall” and won six of seven swing states, including the Democratic strongholds of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. Only the seventh battlefield, Arizona, remains to be known.

Why is there a delay in counting votes?

US media said it could take a few days to count final votes in those two states. In Arizona, most voters vote by mail and counting usually takes several days. State election officials said it could take 10 to 13 days to be fully tabulated.

The New York Times said a majority of voters cast absentee ballots in Arizona. Officials in Maricopa County, which is the state’s largest, said before the election that the full tabulation could take more than a week, he added.

Looking closer, also in 2020, almost 90% of Arizona voters cast ballots early and by mail. Although officials can begin processing and tabulating absentee ballots as soon as they are received, results cannot be released until an hour after the polls close. And any postal ballot received on election day cannot be processed until the polls close. This causes a delay in counting votes and can lead to a large number of ballots being counted later.

Trump’s victory

Donald Trump was elected president, capping a remarkable comeback four years after his ouster from the White House and paving the way for new American leadership that could test democratic institutions at home and relations abroad.

Trump, 78, won back the White House on Wednesday by securing more than 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency, Edison Research projected, following a campaign of dark rhetoric that deepened polarization in the country.