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President-elect Donald Trump is currently leading in both the swing states of Arizona and Nevada, which are crucial in determining the overall American political landscape
President-elect Donald Trump (R) is leading in both the swing states of Arizona and Nevada. (Image: AP/File)
Final calls have yet to be made by the two swing states of Arizona and Nevada, which are still counting votes. They are crucial in determining the overall political landscape post the US election results and, so far, it looks like President-elect Donald Trump is leading in both.
While Nevada is on the verge of voting Republican for the first time in two decades, Arizona has been mixing it up over the past two elections at least.
According to reports, 94 percent of the expected votes have been counted in Nevada with Trump currently leading with 51 percent of the vote and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris trailing at 47.2 percent. In Arizona, meanwhile, 70 percent of the expected votes have been counted and Trump is leading with 52.3 percent as compared to Harris at 46.8 percent.
Trump has already secured the other five key swing states of Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. American media outlets said it may take a few days for the final votes in these two states to be tallied.
Why is there a delay in vote counting?
In Arizona, most voters cast their ballot by mail and counting typically takes days. State election officials said full tabulation could take 10 to 13 days.
The New York Times said a majority of the voters cast their ballot by mail in Arizona. Officials at Maricopa County, which is the state’s largest, said before the election that full tabulation could take more than a week, it said.
In Nevada, too, counting usually takes days as postmarked ballots are allowed to arrive up to four days after the election till November 9. Hence, votes are still being counted in this state and voters have until November 12 to fix any identification issues with their ballots, the Times said.
Taking a closer look, in 2020 as well, nearly 90 percent of the voters in Arizona cast their ballot early and by mail. While officials can start processing and tabulating mail ballots on receiving them, the results cannot be released until an hour after polling closes. And any mail ballot received on Election Day itself cannot be processed until polls have closed. This results in a delay in the counting of votes and can lead to a large number of ballots being tallied later.
In Nevada, the vote counting process was extremely slow in 2020, with news outlets not calling the state for President Joe Biden till five days after Election Day.
But now, counties are permitted to begin processing and counting mail ballots as early as October 21. Workers can start tallying early in-person votes on Election Day itself rather than waiting for the polls to close.
A report published by The Indian Express said despite this, there could still be a delay in the counting process in Nevada as it is unique among the battleground states. It accepts mail ballots that arrive late and, hence, any postmarked by November 5 will still be counted if it arrives within four days, the report said.
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