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Elections are closely monitored by the media, civic groups, and challengers and observers representing the parties, candidates, and ballot propositions that happen to be on the ballot at the same time as the presidential election. Every state has a specific statutory deadline (long before the mid-December meeting of the Electoral College) for finalizing an official count at either the local or state level and, in almost every state, at both levels. Individual voters cast their votes for President in “election districts” (also called “precincts”) throughout the United States. Shortly after the polls close on Election Night, an official precinct tally is created for each candidate for each office on the ballot (including President) and for the “yes” and “no” positions for each ballot measure. If the votes are counted at the precinct location, the election officials at the precinct level produce an official document certifying their precinct’s tally. Precinct tallies are then typically forwarded to some unit of local government, and officials at that level of government typically produce an official document aggregating the results from their local area. Although the procedures vary from state to state, representatives of the candidates, political parties, proponents and opponents of ballot measures, civic groups, and the media typically all have the ability to immediately obtain the vote count for each precinct. Indeed, the almost-instant availability of precinct-level vote tallies provides the basis for the vote tallies that are posted on government web sites and broadcast by the media on Election Night. Existing state laws also require rapid transmission of official documentation of vote tallies to some designated central location (e.g., the secretary of state). Rapid transmission is required by law in order to prevent a potentially corrupt locality from withholding its vote tallies until it learns the results from other parts of the state. Between 6 and 10 days after Election Day, local authorities make official determinations on the eligibility to vote of provisional ballots that were cast on Election Day, and the additional official documents are created at the local level to reflect the inclusion of eligible provisional ballots in the precinct totals. In addition, in the process of rechecking local vote tallies, local authorities sometimes notice and correct administrative errors that may have occurred on Election Night (e.g., transposing digits, accidentally double-counting a precinct). Laws in each state, require local clerks to file “official returns” returns with the Secretary of State, as for example in Connecticut, no later than 21 days after Election Day. The key point is that, within a few weeks after Election Day (long before the meeting of the Electoral College in mid-December), “official returns” consisting of the precinct-level vote tallies for President exist in at least two separate places in every state, namely ● at the level of the precinct or unit of local government where the votes were actually counted, and ● at the state office to which the local vote counts were transmitted. The task remaining at the state level is to add up the “official returns” for each candidate for each office that come in from each town. Federal law requires completion of the vote tally for President prior to the meeting of the Electoral College. Specifically, federal law requires the delivery to the presidential electors of six copies of a “Certificate of Ascertainment” containing the official count (the “canvass”) of the number of popular votes cast for each candidate for President prior to their meeting. Indeed, the “Certificate of Ascertainment” containing the official count is the evidence supporting the presidential electors’ right to vote at the meeting of the Electoral College in mid-December.