By the morning of October 26, more than 27 million Americans had already voted in the 2026 midterms, eight days before Election Day on November 3. Most of those ballots will show up in the first results posted on election night. Many others will not: mail ballots still in transit, provisional ballots, ballots waiting on a signature check. That gap between the first count and the final one is normal, and it is where most election-week confusion starts.
This guide walks through what happens to a ballot after it is cast, who makes a result official, and how challenges work. It then looks at two live disputes this year, in Alaska and California, as worked examples.
Election-night results are unofficial
The numbers on television on election night come from counties reporting early, partial tallies. News organizations “call” races when they judge that the votes still outstanding cannot change the winner. A call is a projection, and a concession is a candidate’s choice. Neither has legal force. A result becomes official only when election officials finish counting every eligible ballot and certify the total.
Results also tend to move in predictable directions. In many states, in-person Election Day votes are counted first and mail ballots later, or the reverse, depending on state law about when officials may start processing mail ballots. Because the two groups of voters often lean differently, the leader can change as counting goes on. That shift reflects the order ballots are counted in, not something going wrong.
What happens during the count, or “canvass”
After the polls close, local officials (usually a county board or clerk) run what is called the canvass. It typically includes:
- Late-arriving mail ballots. Fourteen states and the District of Columbia count mail ballots that are postmarked by Election Day and arrive within a set window afterward. In June 2026, in Watson v. Republican National Committee, the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that federal law allows these grace periods. Writing for the majority, Justice Amy Coney Barrett said the federal Election Day statutes “say nothing about ballot receipt.” California, for example, counts ballots that arrive up to seven days after Election Day. Alaska accepts them for longer, to allow for mail from remote communities.
- Signature checks and “curing.” Officials compare the signature on each mail ballot envelope with the one on file. In many states, if a signature is missing or doesn’t match, the voter is contacted and given a chance to fix, or “cure,” it before the ballot is counted.
- Provisional ballots. Voters whose eligibility can’t be confirmed at the polls cast a provisional ballot. It is counted only after officials confirm the person was registered and eligible.
- Reconciliation and audits. Officials check that the number of ballots matches the number of voters who signed in or returned a ballot. Many states also hand-count a sample. California, for instance, manually tallies 1% of precincts to check the machine count.
All of this takes time, and states set their own deadlines. California’s counties have 30 days after the election to finish and report official results, and the Secretary of State certifies the statewide totals 38 days after the election.
Certification is a duty, not a vote of confidence
Certification is the formal step where officials attest that the count is complete and accurate. It happens at the county level first and then at the state level. In most states, certifying is treated as a required, “ministerial” duty: once the canvass is done, officials must sign off on the numbers. They do not get to refuse because they dislike the result or suspect problems they cannot document. When a county board in Arizona declined to certify on time in 2022, a state judge ordered it to do so, and it did.
That does not mean problems go unaddressed. It means they are handled through a separate set of tools.
Where disputes go: recounts, contests and Congress
- Recounts. Most states allow, and some require, a recount when the margin is very close. Recounts rarely change outcomes; when they do move totals, it is usually by a few hundred votes or fewer.
- Election contests. A candidate or voter who believes illegal votes or errors changed the result can file a contest in state court, usually after certification. They need evidence, and the remedy is tied to what can be proved.
- Federal lawsuits. Federal courts handle claims under the Constitution or federal statutes such as the Voting Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act. Federal judges are generally reluctant to change election rules close to an election, a principle known as the Purcell principle after a 2006 Supreme Court case.
- Congress itself. Under Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution, each chamber of Congress is the judge of the “Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members.” So for House and Senate races, the chamber has the final word on seating a winner, though it almost always accepts the state’s certified result.
Example one: Alaska and the two Dan Sullivans
Alaska uses an open, top-four primary and ranked-choice voting in the general election. Voters rank the candidates. If nobody wins more than half of the first-choice votes, the last-place candidate is eliminated and those ballots move to each voter’s next choice, repeating until one candidate has a majority. Alaska waits until all mail ballots have arrived before running those later rounds. This year the ranked-choice tabulation is scheduled for November 18, with certification targeted for November 25.
This year’s U.S. Senate ballot lists the incumbent, Republican Sen. Dan S. Sullivan, Democrat Mary Peltola, Republican Gerald Heikes, and a second man named Dan Sullivan: Dan J. Sullivan of Petersburg, now registered as undeclared. State election officials tried to remove him from the primary ballot, saying his candidacy was meant to confuse voters. A state judge found the evidence didn’t support that, and the Alaska Supreme Court agreed. In the August primary he received about 2.5% of the vote, compared with 49.5% for Peltola and 41.4% for the incumbent.
On October 22, the U.S. Justice Department sued Alaska’s Division of Elections in federal court. It asked the court to stop the state from certifying the Senate result if Peltola wins, until investigators determine how many voters meant to vote for the incumbent but marked the other Sullivan. President Trump said he ordered the suit. The department relies on the National Voter Registration Act, pointing to the law’s stated purpose of protecting “the integrity of the electoral process.”
Election law scholars across the spectrum have been sharply skeptical. Derek Muller of Notre Dame Law School called the claim so thin it had essentially no chance of success, and a Cato Institute scholar warned that accepting it would federalize many details of local election administration. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said the department should never have filed it. Two practical problems stand out. The National Voter Registration Act governs voter registration, not how ballots are designed or counted. And a secret ballot means there is no way to ask, after the fact, what an individual voter intended. Ranked-choice voting also reduces the effect of any mix-up: a voter who ranked both Sullivans would see that ballot move to the other one if one was eliminated.
Example two: California’s 20,000 mail ballots
On October 15, the Justice Department sued California, asking a federal court to order counties to set aside the mail ballots of more than 20,000 registered voters that federal agencies had flagged as possible noncitizens, and to verify their citizenship before counting them. Noncitizen voting in federal elections is already a federal crime, and the department argues that counting these ballots would facilitate it.
California disputes the list itself. Los Angeles County officials said a preliminary review found people on it who were born in the United States or were not registered to vote at all. The state also argues that the request would amount to a systematic purge inside the 90-day window before a federal election in which the National Voter Registration Act bars such programs, and that once a verified ballot is separated from its envelope it cannot be traced back to a voter, by design.
When the district judge had not ruled by the department’s requested deadline, it went straight to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. At a hearing on October 25, two of the three judges, including one appointed by President Trump, questioned why an appeals court should act before the trial court had ruled, and whether federal officials could direct how a state runs its election without a law passed by Congress. The district court hearing was set for October 27.
Both cases are unusual. David Becker, a former Justice Department voting rights lawyer, said he could not recall an administration ever trying to stop certification of an election. Whatever the courts decide, the cases show where the real decisions are made: in state law, in county canvass rooms, and in courts applying statutes that Congress wrote.
How to read the results this year
- Treat election night as a first draft. Expect totals to change for days, and in states with long mail windows, for weeks.
- Know your state’s order of counting. A lead that shrinks as mail ballots come in is not by itself a sign of fraud.
- Look for official sources. County and state election offices post results and certification schedules. Screenshots of “dumps” and unexplained spikes on social media deserve skepticism; see how to spot a hyperpartisan headline.
- Separate a lawsuit from a ruling. Anyone can file a case. What matters is what a judge does with it.
- Be wary of last-minute clips. Fabricated audio and video tend to appear when there is little time to check them. Our guide to AI deepfakes and elections explains how to check.
For more on how turnout shapes outcomes, see does high turnout help one party? For the rules on who counts as a citizen, see can the government take away your U.S. citizenship?