Patience urged with this year’s elections

Just like most everything going on in our lives this year, the election will also take on a different twist because of the COVID-19 pandemic. And it’s something that may require an extra jolt of patience from all of us.
The pandemic is testing all of us in ways we never imagined. Every one of our institutions has been shaken at their core during the coronavirus.
This past week Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon made an important announcement regarding the upcoming election, which will be a historic one in the face of COVID-19.
More and more Minnesotans every year are choosing to vote by absentee ballot. In 2018, as many as 24% turned in a ballot outside of Election Day. Simon is expecting far more than that to vote absentee this year. Processing, storing and tabulating a significantly higher number of mailed-in ballots is presenting Simon’s office as well as counties, cities and townships with an incredible challenge.
Absentee voters previously had to have their ballots received by Election Day. Now they must be postmarked by Election Day and may be accepted within two days later, Aug. 13 for the primary, and seven days later, Nov. 10, for the general election.
Simon is asking for patience from everyone during this year’s election. While we’ve become spoiled in recent years getting election results within hours of the polls closing at 8 p.m., Simon warns it’s going to be different this year. “The public needs to understand that in 2020, results will not be complete on Election Night,” he said, noting this is common in other states that have historically had a postmark requirement or provisional ballots.
The secretary notes it may take a few days or up to a week until ballots are all in and counted. Simon stresses this doesn’t mean anything has gone wrong.
For this week’s Primary, the Legislature granted 48 hours of relief after Election Day to allow election officials sufficient time to count ballots. That means official results may not be known until late Thursday night. Simon says when you see the delay in reporting, know that it is by design, by law.
“Our commitment to accuracy and maintaining our longstanding system of safe, secure elections remains strong,” Simon says. “This year, it’s just going to take more time.”
On Election Night, the secretary will not know how many absentee ballots are outstanding. Some counties have indicated they will not be reporting any numbers on Election Night as they have until Wednesday at midnight to do so. 
Due to the extended processing time, results will be updated as the Secretary of State’s office receives them. And, Simon points out, it may be difficult to infer the results of specific races until ballots are fully counted.
Patience is a virtue we all need to go in hot pursuit of demonstrating especially in the face of a pandemic.