A worker with the Detroit Department of Elections waits for the next absentee ballot to be sorted through at the Central Counting Board in the TCF Center on November 4, 2020 in Detroit, Michigan.
Elaine Cromie | Getty Images
Don’t hold your breath for a call in the presidential race.
Election results from Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania could take until later this week to complete official tallies, according to officials.
The three states represent a combined 46 electoral votes, with 16 from Michigan, 20 from Pennsylvania and 10 from Wisconsin. That’s nearly a fifth of the required 270 electoral votes for a victory.
Georgia and North Carolina, which both were too close to call just after midnight Wednesday, also are likely to take some more time as more ballots come in. Georgia has 16 electoral votes, and North Carolina has 15.
Democrat Joe Biden had hoped to pick off at least Florida or North Carolina, but as of midnight Tuesday, President Donald Trump held leads in those two swing states, according to NBC News.
Pennsylvania had long been expected to take a while for votes to be fully counted since officials there are not allowed to open mailed ballots until Election Day. With record numbers of voters casting their ballots by mail because of the coronavirus pandemic, that could significantly delay the results from the state.
A worker with the Detroit Department of Elections inspects an absentee ballot at the Central Counting Board in the TCF Center on November 4, 2020 in Detroit, Michigan.
Elaine Cromie | Getty Images
Officials in Michigan and Wisconsin have also said it will take extra time to count all of their ballots. Michigan officials believe they need 24 more hours to tally votes, MSNBC reported late Tuesday.
In Wisconsin, Milwaukee County Elections Director Julietta Henry told reporters that they weren’t expecting to finish counting absentee votes until as late as 7 a.m. ET Wednesday.
The three states could prove critical if the results are still unclear by early Wednesday. Trump won all three states by relatively small margins when running against Hillary Clinton in 2016. Democrats have been hoping to win back those states with Biden.
