will we know who the next president is on Election night well it depends and one reason is that some states take weeks to count ballots unlike many countries us elections are highly decentralized and include long lists of races elections for president and Congress all the way down to local offices are run by County town and state election officials not by any national election officials the way we vote can also affect how quickly the results are reported even before the pandemic states started to expand male voting the goal was to reduce lines and give voters more op to cast their ballots these mail ballots are subject to various Security checks some states require voter signatures or ID information to match registration files the rules for counting those ballots also vary from state to state some states can get a head start by validating ballots before election day whereas other states have to wait until the polls close in all 17 States and Washington DC allow mail ballots to arrive after election date while 32 others require they be in The Ballot Box on Election Day so if there’s a close race and a lot of ballots arrive after election day it could