We’ve survived election day, but we still must wait to find out who wins the presidential bid. It’s a contentious cycle; Wisconsin and Minnesota have returned to the Blue Wall, and key states Texas and Florida have swung red. The 2020 voter turnout is on track to be the highest since 1900, making individual votes all the more critical.

There are multiple instances of delayed election results in American history (2016 included), but the extended delay for this cycle is in large part because of mail-in ballots. The COVID-19 pandemic heightened demands for a mail-in option to counter long lines and to reduce transmission at the polls.

There is no federal mandate on the mail-in process. Since each state established their own regulations on who could vote by mail and what deadline the ballots had to arrive by, the final tally may not be clear until next week.

Around the world

According to Pew Research, 40 of 166 countries utilized mail-in ballots even before the pandemic. These countries are clustered in Europe, but other nations with mail-in options include India, Canada, Australia, South Korea and Indonesia.

France instituted a restricted mail-in option as a consequence of the pandemic. In March, they announced that voters at higher risk of contamination, or those already sick or in quarantine, could mail in their ballots. In a report by Business Insider, Switzerland sends out ballots to its citizens weeks ahead of the election and allows them to mail the ballot in or to vote in-person. Estonia has even had online ballots since 2005, a process protected by encoded identification cards.

In American history

Soldiers have been voting by mail since the Civil War, with an estimated 150,000 out of one million Union soldiers casting their ballots in the 1864 presidential election.

Absentee ballots

For many college students, voting by mail with an absentee ballot is nothing new. When a voter is too far away from their registered polling location – due to school, work, military service or disability – they may request an absentee ballot to cast instead. This allows them to vote for representatives and policies that affect their specific district rather than registering in an area they may be living in only temporarily.

“No-excuse” mail-in voting

The Western states led the charge to allow their citizens to vote by mail without supplying a reason.

“Western states are newer, have the biggest rural areas and are doing the most pioneering work. Their progressive values play a role in their political culture,” Lonna Atkenson, Director of the Center for the Study of Voting, Elections, and Democracy at the University of New Mexico said in an interview with History.com.

Oregon and Washington hold their elections solely through the mail. Oregon passed their mail-in only measure in 2000, followed by Washington in 2011.

2020: What are the policies in the final battleground states?

34 states announced no-excuse mail-in voting in 2020.

Nevada was one of nine states that mailed ballots directly to its residents. They are expected to have their results finalized as of Thursday, Nov. 5.

Georgia expects their final tallies by the end of the night on Nov. 4 or early into Thursday morning.

North Carolina will accept ballots that were postmarked on Election Day, Nov. 3. They will stop counting mail-in votes on Nov. 12. The state has a large military presence, a factor contributing to their total number of mail-in votes.

The Trump campaign has sued Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan to contest alleged instances of fraud.