1. An attempt to clear up confusing public discourse about counting ballots, in five tweets.

When Trump talks about no "counting" after Election Day, he could mean one of two things:

A) No tabulating *at all* after 11/3; or
B) No counting of ballots *received* after 11/3.

2. Claim A is just insane. As I& #39;ve explained in detail in another thread, *no* state finishes counting all of its ballots *on* Election Day, and every state but one waits at least a week before fully certifying their results. Federal law is clear on this: https://twitter.com/steve_vladeck/status/1321033036104896513?s=20">https://twitter.com/steve_vla...

3. And so, when Trump says that courts are siding with him about no counting after Election Day, he& #39;s just flat-out wrong.

Claim B is trickier because rules for when absentee/mail-in ballots must be *received* necessarily vary by state, as there& #39;s no uniform federal standard.

4. Much of the litigation you& #39;re reading about involves courts deciding whether (and to what extent) different states& #39; laws allow for late-arriving mail-in ballots to be counted. There almost certainly *isn& #39;t* one uniform answer, hence all of these (outwardly disparate) rulings.

5. But however *those* cases are resolved, what& #39;s clear is that the counting of votes received *by* 11/3 can and will go past that date; the result won& #39;t be official until enough states certify that one candidate has 270 EVs; and there& #39;s *nothing* nefarious about *any* of that.