Statement: Elections end when the votes are counted, and they are still being counted

Despite President Trump’s claims, we cannot prematurely name an election winner

U.S. PIRG

WASHINGTON — Early Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump falsely claimed to have won the 2020 presidential election. At this point, there are still too many uncounted ballots for either candidate to claim victory. 

People predicted this would happen. To protect public health during the COVID-19 pandemic, states across the country shifted toward allowing more voters to cast ballots remotely. But mail-in ballots, while safer, take more time to transport and tally than traditional in-person voting. 

Election administrators in such battleground states as Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania have not yet finished counting the millions of absentee ballots cast this year. 

In response, U.S. PIRG Democracy for the People Director Joe Ready made the following statement:

“We would all like this long election season to be over, but unilaterally claiming it’s done doesn’t make it so. Making sure the votes of millions of our fellow citizens get counted is a bedrock principle of our democracy. We must all be patient while the dedicated election officials across the country continue their work to count every vote.

“That the votes are still being counted shouldn’t come as a surprise to any of us. We have known for months that we were unlikely to get the results of this election on the night of Nov. 3. Speedy, incomplete answers aren’t as important as securing election results that the country can have faith in. Getting a full and accurate count will take more time, but for our democracy it is worth the wait.”

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U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups, is a consumer group that stands up to powerful interests whenever they threaten our health and safety, our financial security, or our right to fully participate in our democratic society.

U.S. PIRG affiliates: Arizona PIRG, CALPIRG, CoPIRG, ConnPIRG, Florida PIRG, Georgia PIRG, Iowa PIRG, Illinois PIRG, MASSPIRG, Maryland PIRG, PIRGIM, MoPIRG, MontPIRG, NCPIRG, NHPIRG, NJPIRG, NMPIRG, Ohio PIRG, OSPIRG, PennPIRG, RIPIRG, TexPIRG, WashPIRG, WISPIRG.

U.S. PIRG is part of The Public Interest Network, which operates and supports organizations committed to a shared vision of a better world and a strategic approach to getting things done.