How long can vote counting go on for? Your U.S. election questions answered
Also: Are there any restrictions on what outgoing presidents can do?
From vote counting to presidential term limits, we're tackling what you want to know about the U.S. presidential elections. Email us your questions to [email protected].
How long can vote counting go on for?
It could take days for the election result to be known, especially if it is close and mail-in ballots are a factor.
States have their own cut-off dates for accepting and counting mail-in ballots. Pennsylvania, for example, will still count mail-in ballots received after (but postmarked by) election day. It will also count military and overseas ballots up to one week after that.
But electors, who together form the Electoral College, meet in their respective states and the District of Columbia to select the president and vice president on Dec. 17.
The president of the Senate — currently Vice-President Kamala Harris — and the archivist must receive those votes by Christmas Day.
The vice president presides over the Electoral College vote count at a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6, announcing the results and formally declaring who has been elected.
What happens if states don't certify results on time?
Some U.S. states are sending strong signals to county and local officials who might be tempted to intervene illegally in the Nov. 5 election or refuse to certify results: Fail to do your duty and risk criminal charges or hefty financial penalties.
In at least five of the seven battleground states that could determine whether the next U.S. president is Democratic nominee Harris or Republican nominee Donald Trump, top election and law enforcement officials have investigated, indicted and even jailed officials who tried to interfere with the vote or delay certification of results — the latter of which is a necessary but largely ceremonial step.
County officials have also been warned that failing to certify results on time could force their local governments to foot the bill for unnecessary audits or recounts.
The increased oversight of local election officials is aimed at preventing unfounded claims of fraud from slowing the certification of election results, which in turn could interfere with Congress's certification of the presidential election results in a highly-charged partisan atmosphere.
With Trump still repeating false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and that he will lose in November only through fraud, ensuring the election process goes smoothly in each state is critical. States that fail to certify results by certain deadlines could be left out of the state-by-state Electoral College process that formally determines the winners of U.S. presidential elections.
"The law is clear and we won't tolerate anyone not following it for any reason," Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson said in an interview with Reuters.
Are there any restrictions on what outgoing presidents can do in office?
An outgoing president's powers remain the same before the president-elect is inaugurated.
Nothing changes between election day and inauguration day on Jan. 20., said Fortier, who noted that outgoing presidents typically use their powers in "last-minute ways."
They might write new executive orders or issue presidential pardons while they still have the chance.
Conversely, the president-elect does not receive any presidential power until they are officially sworn in.
How many times can someone be president?
According to the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution "no person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice."
Franklin D. Roosevelt is the only U.S. president to serve more than two terms because term limits weren't introduced until the 22nd Amendment was ratified in 1951.
Roosevelt held the office a record four times from 1933 until his death in 1945.
"He won big in all four of his elections," said Susan Dunn, a professor of humanities at Williams College in Massachusetts. Roosevelt won his third term as the U.S. was emerging from the Great Depression and on the brink of the Second World War.
"The country needed him."
What happens if the president-elect dies before being sworn in?
There are essentially three different answers, each depending on when the president-elect were to die:
- Before the electoral college vote.
- After the electoral college vote has been counted and ratified by Congress.
- Or the small window of time between the electoral college vote and its ratification.
If a candidate won the general election but died before the electoral college votes, the electors pledged to that candidate would be expected to vote for a new nominee selected by their national party, said Fortier.
"The political party that has the vacancy would meet again," he said, "and they would select a new candidate."
Fortier said the "most obvious thing" would be to move up the vice-president-elect. "But it doesn't have to be that way," he said, because there are no laws requiring either party to do so.
In the second scenario, where the president-elect dies before inauguration day but after Congress ratifies the results of the electoral college vote, the normal line of succession would follow and the vice-president-elect would be sworn in on Jan. 20.
That said, we don't really know what would happen in the third scenario.
"It's arguably one of our most confusing," said Fortier.
Congress would have to decide whether to count the votes for a deceased candidate in a joint session.
If Congress counts the ballots as they are, the vice-president-elect would assume the role of the president on Jan. 20., and would later appoint another vice-president.
But if Congress decides to toss out the votes of the dead president-elect, no candidate would meet the 270 electoral college votes required to win, triggering the 12th Amendment. This means the Senate would be in charge of picking the vice-president and the House of Representatives would choose the president.
"We just don't know what would happen," said Fortier, "and it's a dangerous period because of that."