Post Election Timeline - Why It Matters
Voting is over. But our elections are not. From November 6-21, a series of post election activities will take place at local, county and state levels to test the accuracy of our elections, manage any discrepancies, and certify the official results. The timeline for selecting the president will extend through January 6, 2025, when state electors come together in Washington D.C. to affirm their state’s choice to be the next US President.
So, what are these processes, when do they occur, and why do they matter? Understanding post-election activities is more than just a civics lesson. They also demonstrate how our elections are built around a transparent system of laws and protocols that clearly specify “who does what by when,” and are filled with safeguards and ways to manage discrepancies. Votes are not counted and verified in secret - the results of our elections in Minnesota are managed with party-balance, on dates and times specified in statute, often shared in public settings that people can observe, audited for accuracy, and certified with confidence.
Understanding how our elections are certified also helps to dispel misinformation, reminds voters how they can participate in the process, and provides reassurance that our election protocols include opportunities for ongoing input and review.
Here’s the timeline for election certification in Minnesota:
November 5: Unofficial results are tabulated and delivered to and secured within county election offices. A candidate can submit a request to “guard the ballots” after they’ve been tabulated. This role is carefully outlined in statute, and includes oversight from election officials.
November 8-13: Counties hold Canvass Board Meetings. Turning the unofficial results of election night into the official results that allow winning candidates to receive their election certificate is called canvassing. It starts with county election administrators performing administrative checks to assure the vote counts uploaded to the Election Reporting System match the election-night tabulator printouts.
The counties then present and officially certify a canvass report, and select at random the precincts they will audit to check these results, which depends on the number of registered voters and precincts.
November 14-19: Counties hold Post Election Review audits. The process of auditing the accuracy of the actual vote counting is called the Post-Election Review (PER) in Minnesota. Each county’s PER is open to the public to observe, during which election officials will review the election results returned by the tabulators. The review is a party-balanced hand count of the ballots for each eligible election (U.S. President, U.S. Senator, U.S. Representative, and Governor) in the selected precincts compared with the results from the tabulators used in those precincts. The PER process actually provides multiple opportunities to address possible discrepancies with specific administrative procedures. The results of each PER are posted publicly, and provide a great way to check the accuracy of our voting machines.
November 15-22: Final timeframe for requesting a recount (although is flexible pending the type of recount.) The PER should not be confused with a recount, which is a process used to determine the vote count between two candidates or ballot issues. Publicly funded recounts can occur if the vote margin is extremely close. Discretionary recounts may also occur upon a candidate’s request and at their expense. Both recounts follow very specific party-balanced procedures to certify a final result.
November 21: State holds Canvass Board Meeting. The 2024 State Canvass Board is responsible for certifying the results of all multi county elections, including state and federal offices, state constitutional amendment ballot questions. The board compiles and reviews the results as indicated by each of the 87 county canvassing reports. If necessary, upon the request of an apparent losing candidate, the state canvassing board oversees a recount of the results for that office.
December 10: State issues Certificate of Ascertainment, which is the official document sent by the Governor to the National Archives, confirming Minnesota’s total popular votes cast for President, and identifying the 10 electors appointed by the political parties (2024 DFL Electors, 2024 GOP Electors), who are bound by law to vote for the presidential candidate who won the most votes statewide.
December 17: Presidential Electors meet at the MN State Capitol. Minnesota’s electors representing the winning presidential and vice presidential candidates meet to formally cast and sign certifications of their electoral votes. There are a total of 538 electors in the US, apportioned by state based on population size, which represent the electoral college.
To win the presidential election, a candidate must obtain at least 270 electoral votes, and may or may not win the popular vote.
January 6, 2025: US Congress Counts the Electoral Votes. Congress meets in a joint session to count the electoral votes. The Vice President ceremoniously presides over the count and announces the results of the Electoral College vote, and declares which persons have been elected President and Vice President of the US. In 2022, Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform Act to reform and modernize the outdated 1887 Electoral Count Act. It replaced ambiguous provisions of the 19th-century law with clear procedures that maintain appropriate state and federal roles in selecting the President and Vice President of the United States as set forth in the U.S. Constitution.
January 20, 2025: Inauguration Day of the President of the United States, is the day when the president-elect and vice-president-elect are sworn in and take office.
Michelle Witte, Executive Director