2020 has proven to be the year where nothing goes as it has in the past. The November elections are no exception. Mass grassroots mobilizations across the country trained and turned out volunteers to help people get to the polls safely and vote.
Thanks to the vast number of early, mail-in and absentee ballots — as well as large voter turnout — there may very likely not be a clear winner for most races in the hours after election night.
It is natural to have anxiety about the way the election will play out and to desire a quick end and a definitive answer. But we must be willing to recognize that an unprecedented way of voting will mean a different and likely drawn-out process of determining the outcome. While that may be unsettling, it is what we must collectively endure in order to ensure that every eligible vote is counted.
Every ballot cast — from members of the military who sent in their vote from overseas to people with preexisting conditions who voted absentee because of COVID-19 to people who voted on Election Day — must be counted. It does and will take election officials longer to verify and count absentee ballots than votes cast by electronic voting machines.
In some states, state laws prevent election officials from even starting to process ballots until after polls have closed on Election Day. We know that more time to process and count every ballot is especially needed in our communities that have been hit hardest by COVID-19 and that face the highest barriers to voting.
Protecting free and fair elections is a feminist issue, a racial justice issue and a reproductive justice issue. Declaring a winner without counting every vote is not how democracy works, particularly in this time of COVID-19 when many states have allowed ways for voters to exercise their right to vote in a way that is easier and safer for the voter, but will mean more work on the backend as each ballot is received, reviewed and counted — all while observing social distancing (meaning less hands to process) and protecting election officials doing the counting with proper protective equipment.
Extra time is required to double check that those ballots have been verified and counted before announcing a result.
No one in the media, in either party, or in the government should rush to make any announcements about who has won a race until all the votes have been counted for a particular race, even if that takes many days to complete. Every eligible voter who took the time to send in a ballot, or spent hours in a long line for voting at their local polling station, should have their voice heard and their vote counted.
Delays in election outcomes have sometimes been a cause for concern that the system might not be working. But in 2020 — because of active voter suppression efforts and the loss of polling places, particularly in communities of color — a delay in determining the outcome of elections will actually be a healthy sign that the organizing we’ve done and the processes we’ve put in place to protect the franchise, and our democracy itself, are working.
This year, slow will not mean inaccurate. It will mean that election officials are taking the time that is needed to count and verify every ballot, and that the media, the political parties and the government are allowing election officials to do so without prematurely and inaccurately declaring the outcomes of races before each vote is counted and verified.
Voters turned out in record numbers, including folks who are the most vulnerable to COVID and have the least access to voting places. We honor them by making sure we count every vote.
While it may be uncomfortable to wait for results, let’s consider what else we can do in these upcoming days. Find folks to connect with in community and in solidarity. No matter what the results, we must hold space for all the work towards justice that is happening here and across the country, all the successes we have been able to achieve together and what we want to keep working towards.
In recognition of the emotional and mental toll of working during the pandemic and under relentless anti-Black racism and police violence, hold space and time for self-care and community care, for “how the headlines that make daily history affect the muscles of the human body,” as beautifully taught by Martha Graham.
Now is the time to insist on all of us moving forward and holding each other, and we will break these chains together.
Tanisha Arena, Arise for Social Justice; Mia Kim Sullivan, Civil Liberties & Public Policy; Cheryl Zoll and Lisa Andrews, Tapestry; Anne Teschner, The Care Center; Donna Haghighat, Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts