By Pam Fessler, The Elections Group and former NPR News correspondent

One thing you can do now, before Election Day, is produce a story about when people can expect to know the results. It’s a complicated process that has led to confusion, mistrust and misinformation in the past.

Below, we provide a story template to help you hit some key points, with suggestions on where you can insert local details and quotes. Feel free to cut and paste and fill in the blanks as it makes sense for your coverage area.

***

It’s very unlikely that Americans will know the outcome of this year’s presidential race on Nov. 5, Election Day. It could take days, even weeks, after polls close before the results become clear. The same is true for control of the U.S. House and Senate and for other close contests.

The reasons are mostly procedural. Accurate vote counting takes time, especially when it involves millions of mail ballots. Legal challenges, audits and recounts can also extend the period needed to determine the outcome.

Election officials caution Americans to be patient. They say what might look like delays are part of the normal process and not a sign of something nefarious. They warn that simply because a candidate declares victory does not make it true.

[Insert a quote from a local or state official, or national election expert]

In 2020, it was four days after Election Day before Joe Biden was declared the winner. Even those results were unofficial, based on the projections of multiple news organizations.

But that period of uncertainty, and public confusion, opened the way for unfounded allegations of fraud.  Former President Trump and his allies used what appeared to be late “changes’ in the vote count to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election.

Trump even demanded that the counting be stopped hours after the polls closed, falsely accusing Democrats of “finding” ballots to manipulate the outcome.

“We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4 o’clock in the morning and add them to the list,” he said. “To me, this is a very sad moment, and we will win this, and as far as I’m concerned, we already have won it.”

But what Trump and his allies were denouncing was the normal vote-counting process.  Officials had warned repeatedly that the count would take time, especially with the expanded use of mail balloting by Democrats during the pandemic. That created what was became known as a ‘red mirage” on Election Day, something that quickly disappeared once all the votes were tallied.

Election experts warn the same thing could happen again this year.

Ballots cast by voters on Election Day are tabulated relatively quickly, usually by machine, but even those results need to be double-checked.

Mail ballots can take longer to count. Each ballot must be reviewed for accuracy and to ensure that it comes from a legitimate voter.  The process of removing the ballot from the envelope and preparing it to be counted, either by hand or machine, also takes time.

Some states prohibit officials from beginning this process before Election Day, all but guaranteeing that the count will be extended. That is the case this year in two battleground states, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

In [insert name of your state or local jurisdiction], mail ballots can be counted [insert rule].

Use this link to get your information to plug in above. 

There are other factors that could lead to a longer counting period.

Most states require mail ballots to be received by Election Day.  But a few states — such as Nevada, California and Maryland — allow ballots to arrive several days after Election Day, as long they are postmarked by then.  Many states provide a similar grace period for military and overseas ballots.

In [insert name of your state or local jurisdiction], mail ballots have to be received at the local election office by [date] in order to count.

Use this link to get your information to plug in above. 

Voters who cast provisional ballots, often because they lack the required ID or their names are missing from the rolls, are also allowed several days after Election Day to address those problems.

In addition, some states give voters a few days to “cure” or fix errors on their mail ballots so they can be counted. In a close race, this can make a difference.

Election experts offer another word of caution. Even when enough votes have been counted to allow media outlets to project a winner, those results are not final. They still need to be certified by election officials, a process that usually occurs several weeks after Election Day when canvassing and audits are complete.

The certification deadline in [insert name of state or locality] this year is [date].

Use this link to get your information to plug in above. 

Close races can also trigger automatic or candidate-requested recounts or attract legal challenges that can drag the contest out even further.

Election officials hope that doesn’t happen, but if it does, they say it’s all part of a system designed to produce fair and accurate results.

[Insert final quote from election official or expert]

***

We recommend getting your expectation-setting post up ASAP and linking to it often from other stories, or even making it a persistent sidebar in any election-related reporting. This is not a story to run once and assume everyone got the message. It bears repeating.

And it’s likely that your audience will have additional questions about the voting process, vote counting and certification. If your newsroom practices engagement journalism, we recommend setting up a form to collect additional questions from the public, and for any frequently asked questions, creating an F.A.Q.s and ensuring they’re easy to access. Check out this example from WUSF in Florida.

And if you’re looking for more inspiration for language to use, check out these pre-written explainers to set Election Day expectations from Trusting News.

For this template, newsrooms can adapt as needed and make it your own, with no attribution necessary.