FEC's Weintraub: Election Results Never Finalized on Election Day

Official results are never known at the end of Election Day and won't be this year either despite the demands being made by President Donald Trump, Commissioner of the Federal Elections Commission Ellen Weintraub said Tuesday as polls were opening nationwide. 

"I never try and get into the head of the president, but I think what's important for the American people to know is that everyone should get out and vote if they haven't already voted, and all of those votes should count," Weintraub said on CNN's "New Day." "There are some states where they don't even start processing the mail-in ballots until today. So, of course, they're not going to know by the end of the day today what was in all of those ballots."

Trump on Sunday said he thinks it's a "terrible thing when ballots can be collected after an election" and signaled that his team will mount a legal defense to ballots that are counted after Election Day ends. 

"This is how we run our elections," Weintraub said. "In some countries, they have elections where they don't count the votes. We count the votes. That's what a democracy is all about."

Under federal law, through the Electoral Count Act of 1887, states have 35 days after Election Day to finalize and certify their elections. This year's deadline falls on Dec. 8.   

"There have been many elections in our history where we haven't known on election night who the winner was," said Weintraub. 

Weintraub stressed that as voters head to polls, they should be safe and wear masks, and that if they haven't voted yet, they should. 

"We've seen enormous enthusiasm so far, with 97 million early votes," said Weintraub. "That's an astronomical number of people who have already turned out and voted. We want to have a really strong and vibrant democracy where every citizen's voice and vote matters."

She also warned against misinformation that is floating around on the internet. 

"Don't get your information about how to vote from some guy that you're reading about on the internet," Weintraub said. "Go to trusted sources."

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