Here’s a look at what’s happening.

Admission of postal votes

After voters return their absentee ballots by mail, place them in a designated ballot box, or deliver them in person to their local clerk, election officials scan the ballot envelope into the computer system and verify that the signature on the ballot envelope matches the signature on file.

If a voter forgets to sign the envelope or if the signature is significantly different from what is on file – or if someone else signed the envelope – the clerk’s office is supposed to notify the voter of the deviation and ask him to correct it.

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The ballots are then sorted by neighborhood and electoral district and checked to ensure that the number of ballots matches those recorded on the computer. Ballots are then stored in bins by precinct and precinct and remain stored until they can be processed or counted, unless there is a change in a voter’s status or that a voter requests to cancel their ballot before election day.

Cities and towns of any size are now allowed to process and tabulate absentee ballots between 7 a.m. and 8 p.m. on the Monday before Election Day, or on any of the eight days before Election Day if the municipality has more than 5,000 inhabitants. However, they cannot report any results until polling stations close at 8 p.m. on election day.

Voting in person

Voters can come in person to vote on Election Day, but they also have the option to do so in advance under the state’s new early voting law.

Procedurally, early voting and Election Day voting are treated the same way: a voter fills out a ballot and enters it directly into the tabulator at their polling place. With the simple press of a button, the voter submits their ballot for counting, although before doing so they have the option to delete it and request a new one if the tabulator identifies an error, such as voting for multiple candidates for a job.

Tabulators keep a running total of ballots cast, and the ballots themselves fall into a bag inside the machine. Ballots containing votes for registered candidates are manually verified by election workers.

Votes are stored on two memory cards in the machine, which are sealed with a tamper-proof lock that can only be broken once polls close on Election Day. Once the polls close, the precinct chair and co-chair (two election workers from different political parties) enter a code into the machine given to them by the municipal clerk and it prints three paper reports with the results.

At this point, election officials are responsible for safely transporting memory cards, election reports, and sealed ballot bags to their local clerk’s office. The results on the flashcards are then uploaded into the clerk’s computer system and sent to the county clerk’s office.

One of the paper copies of the results remains with the city clerk, another is sent to the county Board of Canvassers, and another is sent to the county’s chief probate judge.

After Election Day

Absentee and in-person ballots are sealed in official ballot bags and stored in clerks’ offices, where they must remain until the Board of State Canvassers certifies the election results.

Unofficial results are first reviewed by county polling boards – four-person panels made up of two Democrats and two Republicans appointed by their respective parties – to ensure that the number of voters matches the number of ballots cast. If there are any discrepancies, canvassers can require the ballots to be presented to the board at a public meeting to resolve any issues.

Once county canvassers sign off, the Board of State Canvassers reviews the results from all 83 counties and votes to officially certify the results statewide. For the general election, canvassers must meet no later than November 25.

If a statewide political race is decided by 2,000 votes or fewer, an automatic recount is triggered. A candidate can also request a recount within 48 hours of certification of results, although the process it’s expensive And rarely reverses the original result.