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As the 2020 presidential election votes continue to trickle in, here's how close race states, including Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia would handle a recount.
Forty-three states and the District of Columbia permit a losing candidate to petition for a recount. However, each state has its own rules regarding a recount, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
The Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota encourages transparency by allowing vote challengers to be present, but accuracy in regard to the ballot in question should be reviewed by a body of individuals authorized by the state.
The CEIMN said challengers, who are representatives of the candidate, political parties or other groups with ballot questions, should be permitted to see but never handle any ballot. The CEIMN argues that this practice would allow the challenger to verify the accuracy of the count. However, according to CEIMN, any contested ballot should then be reviewed by the state's authorized body.
Depending on the state, or even the smaller counties and districts within the state, the recount could be done by either hand or machine, according to vote.org.
In a hand recount, the ballots are examined in person one at a time. Election officials will look at each ballot individually to see which candidate the vote was for. In a machine recount, the ballots are fed back through the machine to ensure it did not miss any votes the first time the ballots were scanned.
If there is a discrepancy between the results of the recount and the certified results, either the recount results will stand or a court may decide which set of results to use.
The U.S. uses two types of machines in its voting system, Douglas W. Jones, a computer scientist at the University of Iowa and co-author of the book Broken Ballots, told Scientific American in a November interview. These include optical-scan voting machines and direct-recording electronic voting machines, both of which were introduced in the 1960s and 1970s.
Optical-scan machines are closely related to the machines that score standardized tests, where you fill in a bubble to note the correct answer. These are the most widely used voting technology in the U.S., Jones said.
Direct-recording electronic voting machines have largely expanded since the 1970s, when the Help America Vote Act was passed in 2002. Many produce a paper record of the votes.
Ballot-marking devices also are used, often for accessibility. These also print out a paper record.
With slim wins in Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia, here's how the states would go about a potential recount.
Wisconsin
President Donald Trump already has called for a recount in Wisconsin after the state went to his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.
Wisconsin allows a candidate to request a recount if they are trailing the leading candidate by certain margins.
For races like the 2020 presidential election, in which more than 4,000 votes were cast, a candidate may request a recount if they are trailing by no more than one percent of the total votes cast, according to Wisconsin law.
In the presidential election, the deadline to request a recount is no later than 5 p.m. on the first business day following the final vote tally. For all other elections, the deadline is no later than 5 p.m. on the third business following the canvass.
In Wisconsin, the recount must be completed within 13 days after the recount was requested.
The candidate requesting the recount is responsible for the costs of the recount unless the count changes the outcome of the election, in which the requester is refunded.
Arizona
A recount cannot be requested by a candidate or voter in Arizona.
Arizona law requires automatic recounts in a primary or general election when the votes between the two leading candidates fall within specific margins. A recount outside of these margins may only be conducted by a court order.
The automatic recount is paid for by the county or town, depending on the race, and there is no set deadline for the completion of an automatic recount.
Nevada
Nevada allows any candidate defeated in any election to request a recount.
However, there is a deadline to request a recount. The candidate must request a recount no later than three business days following the final vote tally. The recount must start within five days after the request and must be completed no later than five days after it starts.
The candidate requesting the recount is responsible for the cost unless the recount changes the outcome of the election in their favor, in which the requester is refunded the cost of the recount.
Michigan
Michigan allows candidates and, in some cases, chairmen of local political parties to request a recount.
Candidates can request a recount only if they meet all of the state's conditions. The first is that the candidate must have run for a certain type of office, including president and vice president.
The recount must be requested within 48 hours after the final vote tally, and must be completed within 30 days.
The state also requires automatic recounts if the difference between the winning and losing candidate is less than or equal to 2,000 votes.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania has both a request and an automatic recount process.
Candidates can request a recount no matter the margin between them and the winning candidate. The request has to be made within five days of the election.
Pennsylvania also requires an automatic recount when the statewide margin of victory for a candidate is less than or equal to 0.5 percent of all votes cast.
The automatic recount would be ordered by Pennsylvania's secretary of state no later than the third Wednesday following the election. The recount must then be completed no later than noon the following Tuesday.
North Carolina
Like Pennsylvania, North Carolina has both a request and an automatic recount process.
A candidate can request a recount if the difference between them and the winning candidate is less than or equal to 10,000 votes, or 0.5 percent, of the total votes cast.
The candidate must request a recount no later than noon on the second business day following the final vote tally.
An automatic recount in North Carolina will occur if election officials discover substantial errors while conducting a random-sample partial recount as part of a larger requested recount.
Georgia
A candidate can request a recount in Georgia if the margin of their loss is less than 0.5 percent of all the votes cast in the state.
Election officials may also request a recount under certain circumstances, including if the margin between the candidates is less than 0.5 percent or if there appears to be discrepancies and errors.
Georgia's secretary of state also can request a recount if a candidate for federal or state office petitions them to do so because of apparent discrepancies and errors in the votes.
