Voting in the 2026 U.S. midterm elections ended Tuesday, Nov. 3, and state and local officials began counting ballots that will decide which House and Senate candidates take office in January, according to a States Newsroom explainer carried by multiple network sites¹.

The piece, published Wednesday, describes certification, recounts and seating as a multi-step process with deadlines that differ by state, then shift to Congress once certificates of election are issued.

Counting and certification take at least a week in most states and often longer, the report said. Kyle Yoder, research director at the Center for Election Innovation & Research, said results are not official until every eligible ballot is counted and that election-night figures on television are a common source of confusion.

Close races can move to recounts after the first count is certified. Some states trigger recounts automatically below a set margin; others let a runner-up, and in some cases voters or parties, request one. Yoder said many recounts and legal challenges cannot start until certification, which he said gives candidates an incentive to let that step proceed.

James Alcorn of the Election Law Program at William & Mary Law School said who certifies a race depends on state law: statewide contests are typically certified by a secretary of state or state board, while some congressional races are certified locally.

Modern cases in which officials did not send a certificate before the new Congress convened in early January have been rare and tied to lawsuits, the report said. It cited Rep. Claudia Tenney, a New York Republican, who was not sworn in until February 2021 after a court-ordered certification; North Carolina’s 9th District, which sat vacant from January to September 2019 after the state board declined to certify either candidate and called a special election; and Sen. Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, who joined the Senate nearly eight months after the 2008 election following a state-court fight.

The House clerk uses certificates to compile the members-elect list used on the first day of a new Congress, including the vote for speaker, after which members typically take the oath. Senate certificates go to the secretary of the Senate; only newly elected or reelected senators, about one-third of the chamber, are sworn in because the Senate is treated as a continuing body, unlike the House, where every member typically takes the oath on day one.

The Constitution gives each chamber power to judge the elections, returns and qualifications of its members. The Federal Contested Elections Act, which does not apply to the Senate, lets the House Administration Committee investigate certain contests, accept certified results or conduct its own recount, then recommend a seating decision that the full House would accept or reject by majority vote. A Congressional Research Service report cited in the piece said such contests rarely change results because that usually means overturning a state-certified outcome.

A separate first-day procedure lets any member-elect object to another taking the oath. The report said Rep. Chip Roy, a Texas Republican, tried that in January 2021 and that members-elect rejected the effort 371-2. The Senate can also examine a contested election, typically through the Rules and Administration Committee, and historically has preferred to wait on state or federal court processes when those exist.

Whether any 2026 race will follow those slower paths is not established in the explainer, which treats lawsuits as a separate track from the ordinary certification calendar.

Sources

1. Florida PhoenixThe election is over. What’s supposed to happen next for Congress?12:51 PM

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