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> That's why I don't understand why in US presidential elections, it takes weeks to get the result. Only one modern presidential election in the US has taken w

> That's why I don't understand why in US presidential elections, it takes weeks to get the result. Only one modern presidential election in the US has taken weeks to get a result, and that only happened because the election was incredibly close - it was decided by a margin of 0.009%, which then prompted an automatic recount by law, leading to court battles. The next-longest was 2020, which took about 4.5 days, and that's in large part because of differences in process due to COVID-19. The actual election was not close; the counting was just much slower (and specifically slower in several close states).

jfengel 3y ago
In 2020 it was genuinely not clear what would actually happen in January 6, when the electoral college votes are officially tabulated. It was not impossible that they could have been faced with "alternate" electors from some states. That likely would have been illegal, but since that had never been tested, the interpretation of the law is up for grabs. We have a weird multi stage counting process and only the final one is truly definitive.