Publication of Official Final Results
The appropriate authority should make the official final election results available as soon as possible after the counting process has been concluded (see Statement of vote for officials final results - Canada and Voting abroad registration forms - Spain). Generally, the local or national office of the electoral management body will be responsible for announcing and releasing the official results, unless the courts have a role in certifying the results.
Some electoral laws stipulate a fixed day for announcing the official results. Depending on the country and the electoral system being used, an average of one to two weeks is generally needed before detailed preparations are complete for making an official announcement.
In many cases the official count can only be concluded once all the ballot papers have been returned to the local electoral management body and all counting steps have been completed, including resolution of any disputes about vote counting (which may result in recounts). Depending on the geography of the country, the communication networks in place, and the electoral system, this process can take from a few hours to several days, weeks, or months to complete.
Great care must be taken to ensure that the figures are accurate. Procedures must be in place to ensure that all appropriate checks and balances have been taken into account before the final results are announced.
Formal documents showing the results of the count are normally prepared, certified, and signed by the responsible electoral district officer, or other appropriate official. These documents are usually officially published, such as in a Government Gazette, tabled in Parliament, or presented to an appropriate official. Also, copies of these documents are usually provided to candidates and party representatives.
Often, formal election results are declared at a public ceremony. Candidates, political party representatives, the media, national/international electoral observers, other interested persons, and the general public are often invited to attend these ceremonies. In some cases, candidates, particularly successful candidates, are given the opportunity to make speeches.
It is desirable to produce detailed publications of election results showing the results of the counting at all levels of voting, from polling stations to regions or electoral districts, and the national level. However, in some cases it is desirable to merge some results.
Merging Results to Protect the Secrecy of the Vote
It may be desirable to merge or amalgamate results from several polling stations to protect the secrecy of the vote. This is generally done if the publication of results at a detailed level might identify the names and votes of particular individuals. This can happen if the number of votes at a polling station is so small that there is a significant risk that all the votes will be for one candidate or party.
This can also be done in cases where there is a real risk that publishing the voting results at a particular polling station could result in retribution being visited on the persons who voted there. This problem can be mitigated by mixing the ballots from two or more polling stations from different areas.
Merging results can also be done for incarcerated voters, absentee, or other categories of voters using special ballots. Since the ballots are usually counted at the head office of the electoral management body, results can easily be merged with other results in order to protect the secrecy of the vote. For internal use only, a special notation can be made in order to keep the audit trail clear.
Role of Judicial Courts
In some countries, judicial courts are only involved in the electoral process after the election, when offenders against the electoral law are brought to trial, or when an electoral result is challenged.
In other jurisdictions, the courts may have a significant role to play in confirming the outcome and official results of the election, where the results are official only when the court has confirmed them. Such confirmation should be done as soon as possible, in order to avoid political instability and potential delays associated with a transition from a former government to the one elected. The courts may also be directly involved in the official count, along with the electoral management body. This will generally be the case if final approval of the count must come from the courts.
