Grand Rapids Expresses Appreciation, Advises What To Expect After Election Day

Press release from the City of Grand Rapids:

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – After experiencing record absentee voter turnout, the City of Grand Rapids expressed its appreciation to the community for a great Election Day. City Clerk Joel Hondorp marveled over the City’s 66 percent voter turnout and thanked voters, election workers and City staff for their energy and enthusiasm.

“I can’t express how thankful I am for the support of our poll workers and staff who worked long hours to welcome record numbers of voters this year,” Hondorp said. “It also was affirming to see citizens engaged and participating in our democratic process like never before.”

Now that polls have closed, Grand Rapids is tallying and reporting today’s precinct totals. The Absent Voter Counting Board also will continue to tally and release results as soon as it completes counting the 55,000 absentee ballots. Hondorp said that Grand Rapids should complete its count tomorrow, but warns that it may take days and even weeks before we know the outcome of the national election.

Why do national results take so long to finalize? There are a few factors, including:

• More than 60 million people are expected to vote by mail in 2020. This is nearly double the mail-in votes from the 2016 election.
• Mail-in ballots are not counted until the day of the election in four states, and 20 states will still accept mail-in ballots after Election Day as long as they are postmarked on or before Election Day.
• There are at least 345 election-related lawsuits, many of which have arisen due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is not the first time that United States election outcomes have taken some time. In recent history, presidential elections as well as primary, state and local elections have taken weeks to produce a final result. For example, it took 35 days to determine the outcome of the 2000 presidential election, and it took 34 days to certify Donald Trump’s win in Wisconsin in 2016.

While this waiting period may be a cause for concern and anxiety, Hondorp calls for patience and preparedness. “Our residents and our community have done our part together. Now, it is important to know the post-election process and how to identify accurate, trustworthy information,” he said. “We recommend getting your information from sources you can trust like your state and local officials and verifying it with other reliable sources.”

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is one of many organizations that has prepared a description of the post-election process that residents might find helpful U.S. Chamber of Commerce website.

Stay up to date with post-election information at the City of Grand Rapids’ Clerk’s Office page.

This press release was produced by the City of Grand Rapids. The views expressed are the author's own.