Will the growing reliance on complex mail-in ballot processing forever change the tradition of election night?

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Yes, at least in part. The tradition of election night as the moment winners are definitively known is already giving way to a longer, more data-driven process because more voters cast mail, early, provisional and absentee ballots, and those ballots require security checks such as signature verification and envelope review. That does not mean election night disappears. In many states, especially fast-counting ones such as Florida, large shares of the vote can still be reported within hours because officials are allowed to process mail ballots before polls close. But in slower-counting states such as California, Alaska and Maine, or in places that accept timely postmarked ballots after Election Day, close races can remain unsettled for days. Ranked-choice voting can extend that timeline further. What is changing most is public expectation. Election-night numbers are increasingly unofficial snapshots, not final answers. News organizations can still project winners in races where margins are clear, but in competitive contests the real milestone is certification, not the midnight call. Experts and election officials stress that this is normal in a decentralized system where states set different rules and where audits, canvassing and recounts are built into the process. The likely lasting shift is cultural rather than procedural: Americans will still have an election night, but more of them will need to think of it as the start of the count rather than the end of the election. Ve…

Democrats Hold 5- to 6-Point Senate Edges in Kansas and Ohio as 4-Seat Majority Fight Tightens

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Democrats Hold 5- to 6-Point Senate Edges in Kansas and Ohio as 4-Seat Majority Fight Tightens

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