How are U.S. election results certified?

Results reported on election night are unofficial and preliminary. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) says federal results are never official until after Election Day, and that it is normal and expected for final totals to differ from election-night totals.¹ The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) defines certification as election officials attesting that the tabulation and canvass are complete and accurate and that the results account for all votes cast.² CRS describes two main steps between the vote and an official result, the canvass and certification, with procedures that vary by state.¹

Ballots are tabulated where they are cast, at central election offices or both, and may be tabulated more than once to check the count. Many states let officials begin processing mail or early ballots before Election Day, while some prohibit counting until the polls close.¹ Which officials run elections in each state is covered in our explainer on who runs U.S. elections (opens in a new tab).

In the canvass, officials reconcile the number of ballots cast with the number of voters and make sure the final results include every valid vote, the EAC says.² CRS lists the work involved: deciding whether to count provisional ballots, resolving marking errors and questions of voter intent, duplicating damaged ballots that scanners cannot read, and reconciling ballots with the number of in-person voters. When a mail ballot's signature is missing or does not match, some states may contact the voter and let the voter correct it, a process called signature curing. Depending on the jurisdiction, professional election officials, appointed canvassing boards or both conduct the canvass.¹

Who certifies local results varies: a single official such as a town clerk or county auditor, a canvassing or election board, or in some states a court. The EAC says the local authority can certify only after all eligible votes are counted and all post-election verification is complete.² The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) reports local canvass deadlines from the day after the election in Alaska to 30 days after the election in California, and state deadlines from the Friday after the election in Oklahoma to the second Tuesday in December in Missouri, for offices other than presidential electors. In six states, NCSL finds the law's language on completing the state canvass or certification vague or absent.³

At the state level, the certifying authority collects the final local results, compiles them and signs a certificate of election.² In some places certification is the last step of the canvass; in others the governor or chief state election official issues certified results based on the canvassing authority's report. CRS says state certification comes after the canvass and, in most states, after audits.¹

Michigan's constitution, as amended by a voter-initiated measure approved in November 2022, makes certification by a board of canvassers a ministerial, clerical and nondiscretionary duty of the board and each member. It names the Board of State Canvassers as the only body that certifies statewide and federal results, and makes a state certification final subject only to a recount or court order after certification.⁴

Courts have ordered officials to certify when they refused or delayed. In June 2022, New Mexico's Otero County Commission refused to certify its primary results, citing claims about Dominion voting machines that NBC News describes as debunked. After the secretary of state went to court, the New Mexico Supreme Court ordered the commission to certify, and it did so in a 2 to 1 vote later that week.⁵ In Arizona that November, two Cochise County supervisors twice voted to postpone certifying the general election. A superior court ordered the board to canvass the election on December 1, 2022, and state officials certified Arizona's results three days later.⁶ Supervisor Peggy Judd later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor of failing to perform her duty as an election officer.⁷ In the criminal case against Supervisor Tom Crosby, the Arizona Court of Appeals held in December 2024 that canvassing an election is an administrative responsibility and that the board's duty to canvass was not discretionary.⁶

In Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth Court in August 2022 directed Berks, Fayette and Lancaster counties to certify primary results that included timely, signed mail ballots they had left out because they lacked a handwritten date.⁸ In Georgia, a Fulton County judge ruled in October 2024 that county election officials have a mandatory duty to certify results, and the Georgia Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in July 2025, saying concerns about errors are not a basis for refusing to certify by the deadline.⁹ In June 2025 the Georgia Supreme Court held that 2024 State Election Board rules requiring county boards to make a reasonable inquiry before certifying, and letting board members examine all election-related documentation, were not authorized by statute.¹⁰

A recount retabulates ballots to check that the count was accurate, by rescanning them or counting them by hand depending on the circumstances and state requirements, and some recounts happen before certification.¹ NCSL reports that 26 states and Washington, D.C. recount automatically when results fall within a set margin, with thresholds ranging from a 1 percent margin to a tie and 0.5 percent the most common, and that 41 states and D.C. allow a recount to be requested.¹¹ The EAC notes there is no uniform federal timeline for recounts, but any recount must finish before the deadlines for taking office.²

In states with no recount process, a losing candidate's remedy is to contest the result in court, where a recount may be ordered.¹¹ Election contests focus on how the election was conducted and are generally resolved through litigation under state law.¹

Audits are different. A post-election tabulation audit checks that the equipment and procedures used to count votes worked properly, and audits are conducted regardless of the margin. All 50 states and Washington, D.C. conduct some type of post-election audit, according to NCSL, which lists seven states that require a risk-limiting audit by statute, a method designed to give strong statistical evidence that the reported outcome is correct.¹² Some states require audits before certification and others after.²

For congressional races, the Constitution makes each chamber the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members.¹³ Federal law directs the governor of a state that elects a senator to certify the election, under the state seal, to the President of the Senate.¹⁴ Before each new Congress, the clerk of the House makes a roll of members-elect, listing those whose credentials show they were regularly elected.¹⁵ A losing House candidate may contest the result under the Federal Contested Election Act by filing notice with the clerk within 30 days after the result is declared.¹⁶ CRS says the House generally treats a state-issued election certificate as prima facie evidence of an election's regularity and results, and that such contests rarely change results because that typically requires the House to overturn a state-certified result. The House dismissed five contests in the 119th Congress.¹⁷

For presidential elections, the Electoral Count Reform Act of 2022 requires each governor to issue a certificate of ascertainment naming the state's electors at least six days before the electors meet.¹⁸¹⁹ A presidential candidate's federal suit over that certificate goes to a three-judge district court, whose final judgment may be reviewed directly by the Supreme Court on an expedited basis.¹⁹ The law limits the role of the President of the Senate, ordinarily the vice president, to ministerial duties when presiding over the joint session of Congress, and an objection to a state's electoral votes must be signed by at least one-fifth of the senators and one-fifth of the House members.²⁰

CRS says federal law typically has relatively little effect on how results are counted and finalized.¹ The Justice Department's Voting Section enforces the civil provisions of federal voting laws, including the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act and the Help America Vote Act.²¹ Federal observers may watch polling places and sites where ballots are counted; the department says it now uses them only where a federal court order under the Voting Rights Act authorizes them, and elsewhere sends its own attorneys and staff to monitor elections.²² The Civil Rights Act of 1960 requires every officer of election to keep records from federal elections for 22 months, and lets the attorney general demand in writing to inspect and copy them, stating the basis and purpose of the demand.²³²⁴ The Associated Press reported in May 2026 that the department had sued at least 30 states and D.C. to obtain detailed voter registration data and that judges had rejected several of those demands; a federal judge in Wisconsin ruled that the state's voter list is not a record that can be requested under that law.²⁵

The department's own guidance has long counseled restraint while results are pending. Its 2017 manual on election offenses said the states have primary authority to make sure the candidate with the most valid votes is certified and that the department has no role in deciding who won. It said overt investigative steps into how votes were cast or counted should generally wait until results are certified and recounts and contests are over, and warned that seizing election documents could deprive state officials of materials needed for recounts and certification.²⁶ The Justice Manual, in a section added in August 2022, says the department should generally avoid interfering or appearing to interfere with tabulation, validation or certification, with exceptions approved by its Public Integrity Section.²⁷ In a June 11, 2026 letter to Todd Blanche, then the acting attorney general, Sen. Michael Bennet and other senators said the department had removed the 2017 manual from its website without explanation and asked whether it would restore it.²⁸

Whether the federal government can stop or delay a state's certification is disputed. In October 2026, Attorney General Todd Blanche said it was not the department's intention to improperly interfere with certification but declined to say there were no circumstances in which it would act, while Lauren Miller Karalunas of the Brennan Center for Justice said any federal role in state certification would be inherently improper.²⁹ On November 1, 2026, a federal judge dismissed a Justice Department suit that sought to delay certification of Alaska's Senate election if Sen. Dan Sullivan lost, finding the department had not established standing; the department said it would appeal.³⁰