The 16 statewide primary elections held during the pandemic reached a glaring nadir on Tuesday as Georgia saw a full-scale meltdown of new voting systems compounded by the state’s rapid expansion of vote-by-mail.
But around the country, elections that have been held over the past two months reveal a wildly mixed picture, dominated by different states’ experiences with a huge increase in voting by mail.
Over all, turnout in the 15 states and Washington, D.C., which rapidly expanded vote-by-mail over the past few months, remained high, sometimes at near record levels, even as the Democratic presidential primary was all but wrapped.
The good news was millions were able to vote safely, without risking their health. The bad news was a host of infrastructure and logistical issues that could have cost thousands their opportunity to vote: ballots lost in the mail; some printed on the wrong paper, with the wrong date or the wrong language; others arriving weeks after they were requested or never arriving at all.
But the most definitive lesson for November may be what many have already begun to accept — that there’s an enormous chance many states, including key battlegrounds, will not finish counting on election night. The implications are worrisome in a bitterly divided nation facing what many consider the most consequential election in memory with the loudest voice belonging to an incumbent president who is prone to promoting falsehoods about the electoral system.
More than 48 hours after polls closed on June 2, the biggest county in Indiana was still counting ballots.
Four days after its election, also on June 2, Philadelphia was still counting ballots.
“That’s just the way it is,” said Nick Custodio, a deputy commissioner of elections in Philadelphia.
In swing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania and Georgia as well as less competitive states like Maryland and Indiana, the massive expansion of vote-by-mail left many counties still counting well beyond the normal election-night deadlines.