David Becker says midterms' result timing is due to the "normal process" of close elections

[0:00] And we're joined now by our CBS News election law contributor and the executive director of the [0:04] Center for Election Innovation and Research, David Becker. David, good to have you here. [0:10] So each state, they have their own systems, their own timeline for poll closings and for vote [0:15] counting. Some places, early votes already in. But when will we know results? Well, we're going [0:21] to know results not because of the factor of how fast states are counting. Look, the election [0:25] officials in every county, in every state are going to be working all night long trying to [0:29] get the ballots reported out. The biggest variable is how close the elections are. Because when you [0:36] talk to someone like Anthony Salvanto, who will tell you if it's really close, they just need more [0:40] ballots in before they can make a call to say for sure the person in second place can't win the race. [0:46] So in a lot of states where we haven't seen close elections before, we're going to see close [0:50] elections in all likelihood. And it might take days. A state like Alaska in particular, where they're [0:55] already well behind Eastern Time. They've got very remote voting all over the place. They're going [0:59] to bring ballots in from all over the place to count them. And if the election's really close, [1:03] it could be several days. That's normal. And everything that's going on in the election [1:08] offices all over the country is under observation. There are Republican and Democratic observers [1:12] at all times watching the ballots counted, watching the mail ballots being opened, et cetera. [1:16] So people should know there's nothing going on. This is just a normal process. And elections [1:20] might be close. It might take a few days. [1:22] And who are those monitors? [1:24] Usually people who are appointed by the parties, either the Democratic or Republican Party, [1:28] representing candidates in many times or campaigns. That's very normal. That's the way it was in [1:33] 2020. Even during COVID, there were literally thousands upon thousands of monitors and observers [1:38] all over the place. So the parties are well represented. They're seeing everything that's [1:43] going on. And as soon as the results come in and we see them, they're aware of them. [1:47] Let's talk about Alaska. It is ranked choice voting. It's a little different in that way. [1:52] This morning on CNN, Republican Dan Sullivan, the incumbent senator, said he will accept the [1:58] results of the election if he loses. As we discussed on this program last Sunday with [2:03] Attorney General Todd Blanche, the Justice Department is seeking to stop certification [2:08] of a possible Democratic win due to ballot confusion with what The New York Times has reported [2:13] is this Democratic scheme to stack the ballot in a confusing way to disadvantage the senator. [2:21] Yesterday, just to update everyone, Alaska's Republican-led state government urged a federal [2:27] judge to dismiss the lawsuit that the DOJ filed. They said it was meritless. [2:34] That's right. [2:35] So doesn't this need to be settled by a federal judge before Election Day? [2:38] It really doesn't. I mean, it'd be nice if a federal judge dismisses the DOJ's lawsuit, [2:42] as so many courts have across the country in these last-minute lawsuits that have been brought [2:47] seemingly mainly to create an impression of chaos. They're failing. But in Alaska in particular, [2:52] it'd be nice if we got a federal court ruling. We might get one. But Alaska's courts have ruled on [2:57] this, including their Supreme Court. They ruled that both Dan Sullivan's can be on the ballot. [3:02] We've seen the ballot. You've shown the ballot before. It's pretty clear that the Alaska Division of [3:07] Elections run by the lieutenant governor there, a Republican, has done a really good job of making it [3:11] as unconfusing as it can be. And with that ranked choice voting, even if someone still wasn't sure [3:17] and they ranked both Dan Sullivan's first and second, by the second round, all of those votes [3:22] would go to whatever candidate got the most, presumably the incumbent senator. I'm not surprised [3:27] Senator Sullivan says he will accept the results. Of course, this is Alaska defending its state's [3:33] sovereignty and its right and authority over elections in the state of Alaska as guaranteed by [3:38] the United States Constitution. It's good to see the Republican governor and Republican lieutenant [3:43] governor there in Alaska defending their sovereignty as strongly as they are. But even Democrats, as I've [3:48] said before, have said this does look bad. This looks like dirty pool. Looks like they're playing dirty. [3:52] There's dirty pool. Both parties do this. It shouldn't happen. Right now in Nevada, there are two candidates [3:58] named forward running for governor. We're not sure what the circumstances of that are. One of them is the major [4:03] Democratic candidate. We've seen Elon Musk bankroll Cornel West presidential campaign in 2024. These kinds of [4:11] things shouldn't happen. I don't think there's any question. But it's pretty normal politics, unfortunately. And [4:17] Alaska's courts and Alaska state law has already ruled on this. There are other states, California, Washington [4:24] state, where we're seeing federal scrutiny. What are you monitoring here? Well, what's really remarkable is there's so much [4:31] last minute litigation alleging allegedly non-citizens on the voter lists, alleging problems with the process [4:38] coming from the DOJ. This Department of Justice has been in power for nearly two years. They have had the full [4:44] power of the federal government to investigate any claims. And as you heard from Governor Shapiro, when [4:49] they've made political statements on this in the press, when they've been asked to show their work, they've [4:54] hit the ball. They have not shared information with California, with Pennsylvania, with other states. And now they bring [4:59] these last minute lawsuits. And they are being rejected soundly by every court, including by Trump appointed judges. In most [5:05] cases, I think this is a good sign. I think this is a good sign that the administration is running out of gas here on this [5:11] effort to sow confusion in the election. And the courts are holding firm. And most importantly, the election officials are [5:18] holding firm. As you and I are talking right now, the last time I checked, it was over 53 million ballots already cast all over this [5:24] country. We're going to see the record, by the way, in a midterm election is 118 million ballots cast. We are [5:31] definitely going to get well over half that before the before Election Day even comes. We might see a record [5:37] turnout. It looks like that's highly possible. We're certainly seeing in places like Texas, where 7.7 million [5:44] ballots have already been cast as we're sitting here talking. And their record for a midterm election is 8.375 [5:51] million total. So they're about they're just over about 600,000 or so ballots away from their highest [5:58] turnout ever. And we are days before the election. Election Day hasn't even happened yet. That's [6:02] remarkable. That's fascinating level of participation. David, thank you for breaking it down. And I know [6:09] we'll be talking to you in the days and weeks to come. We'll be back in a moment.