So as the election can take place Constitutionally, on ONE DAY, neither State has a codified option in their election law that allows for the count to be stopped or suspended, OTHER THAN when the election is deemed to be complete (all votes counted) or that further counting will no longer change the outcome.
There is no no provision for "tired and sleepy counters" or a "mechanical malfunctions".
Most language in the law says that when the counting is stopped by an election official, a winner is to be communicated to the Board of Elections.
Read that again, slowly.
If no winner is declared at the cessation of counting, certain requirements MUST be met including, shutting down and securing the tabulators, securing the physical ballots and securing all items involved in the counting LOCK AND KEY) so a recount can be undertaken.
That did not happen and this violated State law.
Several events, here, were intentional violations of State election law: (1) Counting was "suspended" with no legal authority. (2) Counting was stopped but a winner (or, "statistical tie") was not communicated. (3) the tabulators were not secured, rather they were left "open" so that more votes could be entered.
There were 2 elections on the days of NOV 03-04.
One was legal but laws were broken so that the true outcome was not communicated to the State Board of Elections (Note, THIS is why the Michigan R-members of the SBoE declined to certify!).
The second was illegally counted and added to the open tabulators.
So the original question is valid but a follow-on question would be...who called an end to the counting in the SECOND [illegal] election, and when?