It’s funny how memory works. Most people you ask today will tell you they remember exactly where they were when the 2016 election was "called." They remember the map turning red, the shocked anchors on CNN and Fox News, and the 2:30 AM victory speech in New York City. But if you're asking how long did it take to count votes in 2016, the answer isn't "one night." Not even close.
The "call" is just a projection by media outlets. The actual counting? That’s a marathon, not a sprint. In 2016, the process of finalizing every single ballot stretched well into December. While Donald Trump was already picking his cabinet, thousands of election officials were still hunched over desks in California, Washington, and Michigan.
The Myth of the Election Night Finish
We’ve been conditioned by television to expect a winner by bedtime. It’s basically a national tradition. But the 2016 election proved that the machinery of democracy is slow, clunky, and incredibly decentralized. Every state has its own laws, its own deadlines, and its own way of handling things like provisional ballots or military mail.
The 2016 election took place on November 8. By the morning of November 9, we knew the likely winner of the Electoral College, but the popular vote was a moving target for weeks. In fact, it took nearly a month for the final, official tallies to crystallize.
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Think about California. They have some of the most voter-friendly laws in the country, which means they take forever to count. In 2016, California was still processing millions of ballots weeks after the election. Because they allow ballots to arrive days after the election as long as they are postmarked by Election Day, the "final" count there is always a slow-motion reveal. This is why Hillary Clinton’s lead in the popular vote continued to grow long after she had already conceded the race. It wasn't "new" votes appearing; it was just the slow grind of the official count catching up to reality.
Why Some States Were Fast and Others Were Glacial
If you look at Florida, they usually count fast. They’ve had a lot of practice since the 2000 debacle. In 2016, Florida had most of its results ready within hours. But then you have a state like Michigan.
Michigan was one of the "Blue Wall" states that famously flipped. The margin there was razor-thin—just 10,704 votes. Because the gap was so small, the state didn't officially certify its results until November 28, 2016. That’s twenty days after the election. During those twenty days, the "unofficial" count was the only thing anyone had to go on.
The Provisional Ballot Factor
Provisional ballots are the "maybe" pile of the election world. If a voter shows up and their name isn't on the roll, or they don't have the right ID, they cast a provisional ballot. These are set aside. They aren't counted on election night. Instead, officials have to go back later—often days later—to verify that the person was actually eligible to vote.
In 2016, there were roughly 2.5 million provisional ballots cast nationwide. About 1.9 million of those ended up being counted. Processing nearly two million ballots by hand, one by one, to check registration records takes a massive amount of time.
The Recounts That Extended the Timeline
Just when it seemed like the counting was finally wrapping up, the Green Party candidate, Jill Stein, initiated recount efforts in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. This added another layer of complexity to how long did it take to count votes in 2016.
In Wisconsin, the recount started on December 1 and finished on December 12.
It was a massive undertaking.
Thousands of workers spent nearly two weeks re-scanning or hand-counting millions of ballots.
The result? Trump’s lead actually grew by 131 votes.
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Michigan’s recount was even more chaotic. It started on December 5 but was halted by a federal judge just a few days later on December 7. The legal back-and-forth meant that for about a week, the "final" count was technically up in the air again. Pennsylvania's recount never truly got off the ground due to legal hurdles, but the court battles persisted until mid-December.
The Final Certification and the Electoral College
People often forget that the popular vote count isn't the legal finish line. The "real" election happens when the Electors meet. In 2016, that was December 19.
Even after the states certify their results—which mostly happened in late November and early December—the results aren't truly "final" until the Electoral College votes are cast and then later read by Congress on January 6. If you really want to be technical about it, the 2016 vote counting process didn't officially conclude until the Vice President read the tallies in early 2017.
Honestly, the variation in state laws is the biggest culprit here. Arizona and Washington, for example, rely heavily on mail-in ballots. In 2016, Washington state didn't certify its results until December 7. If the entire election had hinged on Washington, the country would have been in a state of suspended animation for an entire month.
Misconceptions About 2016 "Late" Votes
A huge misconception that still floats around online is that "late" votes are somehow suspicious. They aren't. They are usually just mail-in ballots from rural areas or overseas military ballots.
In 2016, about 24% of all ballots were cast by mail. While that's lower than what we saw in 2020, it was still over 33 million votes. Sorting, opening, and verifying 33 million envelopes isn't something that happens in an hour. It’s a physical process. You have to slice the envelope, remove the secrecy sleeve, check the signature, and then feed the paper into a machine.
If a machine jams? Everything stops.
If a signature doesn't match? The voter has to be contacted.
It's a "measure twice, cut once" situation.
Comparing 2016 to Other Modern Elections
Before 2016, we had years like 2008 and 2012 where the margins were wide enough that the "slow" states didn't really matter for the outcome. We knew Obama had won, so nobody sat around obsessing over whether California took three weeks to finish their tally.
But 2016 was different because the Electoral College was so tight in specific states. When a state like Michigan is decided by 0.2%, every single one of those "slow" ballots—the provisionals, the overseas military votes, the late mail-ins—becomes a focal point of national anxiety.
The reality of how long did it take to count votes in 2016 is that it took exactly as long as the law allowed. In most states, that meant a certification deadline of two to four weeks post-election.
Actionable Insights for Understanding Vote Counts
If you're looking back at the 2016 data to understand how future elections might play out, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Ignore the "called" time: The media calling a race at 2:00 AM is a statistical projection, not a legal fact. The official count always takes weeks.
- Watch the certification deadlines: Every state has a "canvass" period. If you want to know when the count is legally over, look up the state's certification deadline. In 2016, these ranged from 7 days to 30 days.
- Mail-in volume matters: The more mail ballots a state has, the longer the count will take. This was true in 2016 and is even truer now.
- Margin of error: If the gap between candidates is smaller than the number of uncounted provisional ballots, the race is technically still "active," no matter what the news says.
To truly understand the 2016 timeline, you have to look at the Federal Election Commission's (FEC) official report. They didn't publish the "Official 2016 Presidential General Election Results" until January 2017. That document is the only place where every single vote is finally accounted for, including write-ins and minor party candidates that the news networks ignored on election night.
Democracy is a messy, decentralized process. In 2016, we saw that machinery under a microscope. While the winner was known within hours, the full picture of the American electorate took months to develop. Understanding this delay isn't just about history; it's about setting realistic expectations for how our system actually functions. It's built for accuracy, not for the speed of a 24-hour news cycle.