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Voters in Alabama knew the results of their election Tuesday night before DC officials began releasing results despite both states officially closing their polls at the same time.
Both DC and Alabama are scheduled to officially close their polling stations at 8:00 pm Eastern Time on Tuesday night. Alabama counted most of its votes in less than an hour, with the Associated Press calling them at 8:40 pm and 9:31 pm, respectively.
Officials in DC, meanwhile, began counting votes at 10:47 p.m., when the Associated Press announced Rep. Barry Moore won Alabama’s GOP primary – the hottest race in the state.
Democratic-led states including California and Washington, DC, have faced criticism from Republicans and election-integrity advocates who say lengthy vote counts erode public confidence and leave major races unresolved for days or weeks after Election Day. Election officials in those areas defended the timing, pointing to mail-in voting rules, postal deadlines and verification requirements they say are necessary to ensure all valid votes are counted.
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Ballots are stacked on a table in the central counting area at the Baird Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Nov. 5, 2024, during the 2024 US presidential election. (Vincent Alban/Reuters)
DC’s early results were delayed after long lines kept some polling stations open after the scheduled 8pm closing. Long lines at some DC polling stations forced the district to wait nearly three hours after polls officially closed for the counting process to begin.
Further delays in counting have been the large number of postal votes and the district’s move to selective voting, an election method that would require multiple rounds of counting.
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Voters enter a polling place at the Cleveland Park Public Library in Washington, DC, on Nov. 8, 2022, during the midterm elections. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
“When you find out [20,000 to] 30,000 votes on election night by mail, that number will not happen on election night,” DC Board of Elections director Monica Evans told local media on June 9.
At press time, less than 70% of the votes have been counted in DC more than a day after voting began. An estimated 400,000 people voted in Tuesday’s Alabama election, compared to only about 100,000 ballots cast in DC that night.
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A sign marks an early voting location at the Stead Park Recreation Center in northwest Washington on May 29, 2024. (Robert Yoon/AP Photo)
DC’s speed in counting votes has drawn criticism on social media.
“It’s now 10:30 p.m., polls were supposed to close 2.5 hours ago, this is a huge disaster from the DCBOE,” the DMV New Liberals, a local Democratic group, wrote to X Tuesday night in response to news that the city had not yet begun counting votes.
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“In the District of Columbia, only 64% of the votes in yesterday’s election have been counted. And not even that much,” conservative analyst Byron York wrote at 11:19 a.m. Wednesday.
The DC Board of Elections did not respond to a request for comment when reached by Fox News Digital on Wednesday.
