The American Bar Association debunks election myths

WASHINGTON — With just a handful of days left before next week’s election, the American Bar Association is trying to debunk some major myths. 

On Oct. 30 the Knight Election Law Series held a webinar focusing on debunking common election law myths with leading experts. 

Election myth 1: Election night 

For those of you staying up late waiting for results the night of Nov. 5, you may be up for a while. 

David Becker with the Center for Election Innovation and Research said people should know we probably won’t have the final results on Election Night.

Becker said in many past elections results would have been able to be called earlier. In the past, the ballots that had been counted to a point were more than enough to show a winner. But this year, things are expected to be very close.

“There were enough ballots to be able to call the race earlier in the period of time after the polls closed than there is now because we have seven states we expect to have razor-thin margins,” said Becker.

Also, there are now more mail-in ballots that have to be individually counted, which takes time. So, while we may get updates as numbers are reported, it may take days for the final results.

Election myth 2: Non-citizens

One major prerequisite to being able to vote in a U.S. election is to be a U.S. citizen. In recent years there has been a growing concern with non-citizens voting. 

Becker said cases of non-citizens casting votes are rare. In fact, a review in Ohio found just six non-citizen votes cast in the last decade. 

“And what Republican election officials have demonstrated just in that last couple of weeks is that they have the tools to find non-citizens if they are there. [And] that the number of non-citizens actually voting is extremely small,” said Becker.

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