Results of the Nov. 3 election in Indiana, and across the country, may not be known for days. The counting of ballots continues after election night most years. This year’s expected surge in mailed ballots means election offices may need extra time to tally all the votes. As that occurs, some candidates may call for the counting to end and for themselves to be declared the winner. However, winners will be decided when all the votes are counted — that’s the American election system at work. WFIU/WTIU's journalists will cover that process, and WFIU/WTIU will rely on The Associated Press and NPR to call races for the winner based on the AP’s rigorous, time-tested method.
Indiana has gone for President Donald Trump again as the state remained in the Republican presidential column.
The home state of Vice President Mike Pence wasn’t in much doubt as Democrat Joe Biden’s campaign paid little attention to the state that has gone for Republican candidates in 12 of the last 13 presidential elections.
Trump won Indiana by 19 percentage points in 2016 over Hillary Clinton. Although Republicans admitted his popularity had dropped in some areas.
Voters faced long lines at some polling sites across Indiana and election officials said they might need to wait a while to find out results.
Some voters in central Indiana’s Madison County waited in line up to five hours to cast their ballots Tuesday, with long lines remaining after polling sites were scheduled to close at 6 p.m. The county is part of the hotly contested 5th Congressional District.
“We’ve had unprecedented voter turnout, but things haven’t gone exactly as we wanted them to today,” said Russ Willis, chairman of the Madison County Republican Party and president of the county election board.
The county clerk’s office in Indianapolis said Tuesday evening that it had processed about one-quarter of its some 210,000 early votes and that it will likely take the rest of the week before all are counted.
Indiana Democratic Party Chairman John Zody said the record number of mail-in ballots around the state means people might need to be patient while waiting for election results.
“That is perfectly reasonable given the circumstances,” Zody said. “I’m willing to experience a little bit of a delay here if that means all the votes are going to be counted in the right way.”
This post has been updated.
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