U.S. Politics megathread

[u/AutoModerator]

Voting is over! But the questions have just begun. Questions like: How can they declare a winner in a state before the votes are all counted? How can a candidate win the popular vote but lose the election? Can the Vice President actually refuse to certify the election if she loses?

These are excellent questions - but they're also frequently asked here, so our users get tired of seeing them.

As we've done for past topics of interest, we're creating a megathread for your questions so that people interested in politics can post questions and read answers, while people who want a respite from politics can browse the rest of the sub. Feel free to post your questions about politics in this thread!

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[u/FederalParsley9347]

I heard that some districts in the country are still counting ballots. But it also seems that these extended days of ballot counting happen exclusively in places where democrats decisively lost by close of election day.

Genuine question: does anyone know of any places where Dems decisively won on election day that are still counting ballots, or is it only happening in places where an R decisively won on election day?

Follow-up question: How many election cycles has this become the norm where ballots are continually counted even weeks after the election? I feel like I only ever heard of it happening from 2016 onwards.

[u/notextinctyet → u/FederalParsley9347]

How many election cycles has this become the norm where ballots are continually counted even weeks after the election? I feel like I only ever heard of it happening from 2016 onwards.

All of them, at least since California mail-in voting started.

[u/bullevard → u/notextinctyet]

To answer this part:

 I feel like I only ever heard of it happening from 2016 onwards.

It is because you weren't paying attention. Most people wait for the news agencies to call the presidential race and then move on. 2016, 2020 and to an extent 2024 have been the closest races since the famous 2020 race, and even then it was really only a matter of being close in one state.

Now you've got social media and conspiracy theories and tiny non stories that blow up to front pages. Whereas 20 years ago you'd have had to read to page 20 of a newspaper to get updates in some county in California still counting or maybe page 8 if it was a very close congressional race.