For any campaign for office, much is decided before Election Day even arrives. Sometimes things remain undecided after it. This can include the outcome of the election.
High-profile election disputes have made many headlines in the past year or so. But that shouldn’t keep you from understanding the nuance that counting votes and determining a winner are processes that is separate from actual voting, and not all completed at the same moment.
All your effort may come down to just a few votes. Be prepared if that happens
Hopefully, Election Night results leave you well ahead of your competition, and you can celebrate with confidence.
Alternately, if you’re well behind, you can give your concession speech and reflect.
But when Election Night ends with candidates very, very close, you may need to postpone catharsis for a while longer.
What can and does happen after the polls close varies from place to place. If there’s mail-in voting, election officials may allow days or even weeks for ballots to arrive. Provisional ballots are reviewed and counted or rejected. Complete recounts may occur, in some instances automatically if the margin between candidates is smaller than a certain pre-determined threshold.
On rare occasions, elections ultimately end up in a tie, and some other resolution takes effect. For example, in 2019 a coin-toss decided a tied election and, as a result, control of Virginia’s House of Delegates.
If your election ends up in some sort of limbo, you should get familiar with the rules, and get some expert guidance if they’re complicated. Then keep calm, stand up for your rights within the process, and get on with other post-election tasks. Many of them are the same whatever the election’s outcome.
Win or lose, remember to thank everyone
Saying “thank you” is at the top of your list after an election, win lose or draw. Thank your volunteers. Thank donors. Thank the people who voted for you. Even thank your competition if that seems possible to do with sincerity.
Your campaign probably has built an e-mail list, social media followings, or a web site, so give all of them at least one more update after the election. Afterward, you may quietly mothball some of these accounts if you lost. Generally, though, it’s a good idea to tidy up loose ends but preserve anything which may have further use. Clean up the signs and literature and other campaign stuff which has probably piled up around you. But consider saving things like signs, and especially the data your campaign collected. No matter how you feel, immediately after the election, you may want these again one day.
Don’t forget the loose ends
Money is a big category of campaign loose ends. First, if you subscribed to any services or had recurring ads, deal with these. If you won, you might run an ad once more with an update thanking people, if there’s money left. More likely you have bills to pay, and will need any remaining funds for that. Spend some time with your treasurer to balance the books, in time for the post-election report which your campaign needs to file. Then decide what to do with your campaign treasury itself.
If you won, you’ll probably want to keep it active.
If you lost, there’s little need for it unless you somehow ended up with substantial funds left over.
If you haven’t really given yourself time off in weeks, or months, get around to that too. This is easier if you have lost. But even if you have won, take a breather. Things will get interesting sooner than you may expect.