I Voted

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by DanaC

I am probably being a bit thick here. I don't understand the mechanisms of American elections, but what votes are only counted in the event of a tie? Surely, either you've cast the vote or you havent?

Some votes (like mailed-in absentee votes) are more of a pain in the ass to count than others, because you have to open envelopes, run them through a machine by hand, etc. So if on election night, a candidate is ahead by, say, 10,000 votes, and there are only 2,000 absentee ballots, then they don't bother counting them because mathematically it won't matter even if every single one of them is for the underdog.