In just about every election before the year 200, the logic was simple. You vote, the vote gets counted, and you know who voted for which candidate by 11 pm on election night. Plain and simple. But since the 'Dangling Chad' incident in 2000, we have seen increasingly longer vote result times, which culminated in the spectacular failure that was the 2020 election. That is when we had to wait five to six days to determine who actually won.

That election was met with fierce scrutiny, and rightly so. The 4th largest city in the United States (Philadelphia) decided to just quit counting votes at 11 pm Eastern that night. Whether it was fraud or incompetence, it outraged many and raised several worries over our election integrity.

Now, as we prepare for another Election on this Tuesday night, worries over voter result times are rising. Will it take days? Will we know who wins by the morning? No one really knows.

However, Ross Hunt with Hunt Research says we have taken some steps int he right direction, for both result times and election integrity.

"Counties are waiting to release election returns in larger batches...this helps keep down the potential for voter fraud," he says.

By Texas state law, Election Day total have to be submitted within 24 hours after the polls close. It has to be quick but careful work on the part of the election officials.

While the tally might be somewhat slow, we should see results come in fairly fast, even in the big counties. Hunt says that is thanks to the early voting turnout in Texas, which might have us seeing results for the big national races before we hit bedtime.

"With the patterns we are seeing in Texas...we could see clear results of the national races even as early as the release of the statewide vote," he says.

However, that is concerning the presidential election, and the Senate election with Ted Cruz and Colin Allred. When it comes to the state congressional races, and other smaller things, that is another subject.

"When it comes to the congressional races, the Texas State House, and local initiatives...that is where we could be in for a long night," he says.

Mail-in ballots are once again a major concern as well, as they caused chaos in the 2020 elections. However, that election, there was COVID to fall back on as a reason to vote. The pandemic has been over three years now, and people are no longer using the mail-in system, which could spell trouble for Democrats.

The number of mail ballots has slowed this cycle by over two-thirds. But even then, the Democrat turnout has just been low, not just in Texas, but nationally. In Pennsylvania notably, Democrat voter registration was down almost 300,000 this cycle.

Barring any funny business though, we should get election returns fairly quick this Tuesday night. But even if we do not, Hunt adds to not jump to conclusions of voter fraud happening immediately.

The Sean Hannity Show