When a decision is taken to publish interim results, it is desirable to do so as quickly as possible. A few hours to a day after the close of voting is considered a reasonable amount of time to release the first interim results, depending on the local political, logistical circumstances and the electoral system. However, in some countries, three-five days will often pass before early partial results are released. In more extreme cases a full week can also be deemed acceptable, given the local conditions in the country in question. Irrespective of time required, the EMB must manage stakeholders’ expectations by clearly explain and widely distribute the release of results scheme.
Where counting takes place over several days, updates are often published at the end of each day's counting, as a minimum. Often EMBs are updating the results more often, either at press conferences, by issuing press releases, or updating their web-based results site.
Where votes are counted progressively, or are recounted several times, and partial and interim results are published before the final result is determined, these results could be misleading. For example, interim results could indicate that a candidate or party was winning a seat, or a particular number of seats, but the final result might be different. Consequently, special precautions are needed to ensure that confusion or civil strife may occur.
The release of interim results should include cautionary language. The authority responsible for releasing results should explain that those are not final results, and that changes and corrections may be necessary in the process of determining the final counts.
The electoral management body does not necessarily have to release the interim results. In some jurisdictions it is seen as more appropriate for the media, exit poll organisations or non- governmental organizations to release and announce preliminary indications of the vote. However, in the interests of demonstrating transparency and accountability, it is desirable that the electoral management body take responsibility for publishing partial and interim results.
If a political situation is unstable, the electoral management body could consider not announcing interim results, but only final results, in order to avoid any confusion and to prevent the exacerbation of conflict. This option has its risks, as any delay in publishing final results may itself cause instability.
This option is not very practicable where party or candidate representatives are present at the counts, as these counts are effectively in the public domain. Attempting to suppress information from the counts until the announcement of final results in this case is generally not a realistic option.
Depending on the local situation, it may be desirable to include all types of ballots (such as absentee, mail, advance vote, and mobile voting station) used in the election when interim results are released, to avoid discrepancies between interim and final results. Whatever decision is taken on the ways of releasing interim results, the conditions must be clearly explained. For example, are all votes included? Are the votes subject to recounts?
In other cases, it may not be possible to wait for these figures to be available without unduly delaying publication of interim figures. In this case it is important to qualify the interim results by pointing out that the results do not yet include these other types of ballots.
In some jurisdictions it may be possible to count absentee, mail ballots, advance vote, or mobile voting station results before election day, to enable these results to be included in interim results published on election day.
If these special ballots are counted a few days prior to Election Day, these results should be kept very secure, and access to them should be prohibited until the close of voting on lection day.
This approach has advantages and disadvantages. While it allows more complete interim figures to be published, it may also seriously compromise the integrity, turnout, or outcome of the vote if any results are publicly released before the close of voting. As it is usual for candidate and party representatives to be present when any votes are counted, this is a real risk.
Publication of interim results in countries with multiple time zones before the close of voting in some areas may have an undesirable impact on voting behaviour.
For countries with multiple time zones, staggered voting hours or a blackout on releasing results may be considered, to allow all voters to vote before knowing the election outcome or trends in other parts of the country. In some circumstances, these measures may not be seen as appropriate or necessary. Staggered opening and closing times might be seen as discriminatory in some countries. In addition, it could significantly complicate the public information campaign, as the messaging on opening hours will vary from time-zone to time-zone and thereby risk confusing voters, as well as increase costs.
