How canvass and certification work
The short answer
After election night, officials complete a canvass that accounts for every ballot, resolve provisional and cured ballots, run any required audit, and then certify. Certification is the step that makes a result official, and its date is set by state law.
Go straight to the official source
Official source
Read the EAC canvass and certification guidance
Federal description of the canvass, audit, and certification steps states follow.
Read the EAC canvass and certification guidance
This link leaves WomanVoters and opens the official site. We never ask for the personal details the official system requires.
The sequence, in order
- Election night reporting. Local offices publish unofficial totals as precincts, early voting, and processed mail ballots are counted.
- Continued processing. Eligible mail ballots that arrived within the state deadline, cured ballots, and military and overseas ballots are added.
- Provisional research. Officials check each provisional envelope against registration records and state rules, then accept or reject it.
- Reconciliation. Ballots cast are reconciled against voters who checked in, and discrepancies are documented and resolved.
- Audit. Many states require a post-election audit, such as a risk-limiting audit or a fixed-percentage hand count, before or shortly after certification.
- Local certification. County or municipal boards certify their results on a schedule set by state law.
- State certification. A state board or officer certifies the statewide totals.
- Recount or contest. If a margin falls within a state threshold, or a candidate files a challenge, state law governs what happens next.
Why it takes weeks
Each step has a legal deadline that exists to protect eligible ballots. Cure windows give voters days to fix a signature. Military and overseas ballots have transit windows. Audits require ballots to be retrieved and counted by hand. Compressing that schedule would mean discarding ballots that state law says must count.
What certification does not decide
Certification is about the count. It does not resolve a legal claim about whether a rule was lawful, which belongs in court, and it does not make a projection official. A contest filed after certification proceeds under state law, on a schedule written before the election.
What to watch for
- The certification date for your jurisdiction, published by the state.
- Whether an audit is required, and what type.
- The recount threshold and who pays for a recount.
- Where the official canvass report is published, since it usually shows the ballot accounting in detail.
Questions worth asking your election office
- What is the local certification deadline, and what is the state deadline?
- Is a post-election audit required here, and how are ballots selected?
- Where is the official canvass report published after certification?
- What margin triggers an automatic recount in this state?
What the official record shows
The canvass is an accounting process
During the canvass, local officials reconcile the number of ballots cast against the number of voters who checked in, resolve discrepancies, research provisional ballots, and add eligible ballots that arrived within the deadline. The Election Assistance Commission publishes guidance describing this process.
Certification is a legal act with a deadline
State law sets who certifies, in what order, and by what date. Local boards typically certify first, then a state board or officer certifies the statewide result. Recounts and contests, where they exist, follow rules written in advance.
Our perspective
Certification is ministerial, and it should stay that way
Certification records what the canvass found. It is not a moment for an official to substitute a personal judgment about who should have won. Where officials have refused to certify a lawful count, courts have generally ordered them to do their job, and that is the right outcome.
This panel states what we believe. It is labeled, it is separate from the record above, and it never changes the voting instructions on this site.
The strongest argument against our view
Officials who have raised objections argue that certifying while a discrepancy is unresolved would ratify an error. The lawful answer is to resolve the discrepancy through the canvass, an audit, a recount, or a court challenge, all of which exist for that purpose, rather than by withholding a signature.
What remains uncertain
Certification deadlines, audit requirements, and recount thresholds are different in every state, and some have changed recently. Use your state authority for the schedule that applies to you.
Sources
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United States Election Assistance Commission
Election results, canvass, and certification
Federal description of the canvass, audit, and certification steps states follow.
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USAGov, General Services Administration
Where official results are published and why totals keep changing.
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National Association of Secretaries of State
TrustedInfo, state election officials as the source
Directory that points to state election officials as the source for election information.
Change history
This page has not been substantively changed since it was published on August 29, 2026.
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