Friends from around the world are wondering why it is that in 21st century America, where computers, the internet, and Twitter were invented, abaci seem to still be used to count election ballots. 

“In Britain we know who won four hours after voting ends,” a friend from London says. “Why is America so slow?” an Israeli relative wonders. Perhaps it is because Britain, with a population of nearly 68 million, and Israel, with 9.5 million, are so much smaller than America’s 331 million people. 

Yet if that’s the reason, why is it that Brazil, with a population of 213 million, conducted a national election on November 1 and in less than four hours after polls closed at 5 p.m. the country knew that Lula de Silva was elected president in a close contest? About 1.3 billion people live in the world’s largest democracy, India, where voters know who won mere hours after national elections are over. 

Not here.

Two days after the vote, the result of a hotly contested local proposal at a small Long Island community is yet to be officially issued. Only about 2,000 ballots were cast. Eight votes separate the proposal’s “yes” voters from the “no.” Yet, about two dozen absentee ballots remain uncounted, so the outcome will be unknown for a bit longer. 

Not that the proposal is a small matter. Like other towns on Long Island’s east end, it calls for financing affordable housing by taxing new home buyers. Multiple “yes” and “no” lawn signs were visible for months. The local newspaper was filled with arguments on all sides of the issue. Public hearings ended in verbal abuse and even some physical shoving. 

After all this, voters are patiently waiting for a few ballots to be counted according to local laws. Similarly, America eagerly awaits voting counts and certifications at Las Vegas and Reno, and holds its breath while a hand-count audit of more than 400,000 ballots is conducted at Arizona’s Maricopa County. Counting in California and elsewhere is just as slow. 

Nationwide, 29 House and three Senate seats are yet to be called. In the balance is which party will control Congress. As of this writing Republicans have captured 209 seats in the House of Representatives, to the Democrats’ 192. Both are short of the 218 seats necessary for one party to take control and have a big say over America’s legislative agenda for the next two years. 

Slow counting in Arizona and Nevada is also keeping everyone in suspense over which party will control the Senate, where, in addition to other issues, international treaties can be ratified. Currently, according to published results, Republicans will have 49 seats in the upper house and Democrats 48. Even if the Rs win either of the remaining slow-counting states, they still will need to win a Georgia runoff contest on December 6. 

So what, some say. Just have some patience. Yet, in an increasingly divided country, the slow pace of tabulating election results can be hazardous. “Election deniers” and conspiracy theorists come out of the woodwork with suspicions that the other side is cheating.

A timely conclusion to an election is part of ensuring it is and appears to be free and fair. It can save or destroy our democracy. Years after George W. Bush won the 2000 election, Democrats argued, and some still do, that Al Gore was the real, duly elected president. 

Lawyers from all over the country traveled to Florida that year to litigate the election. The Sunshine State’s results in the November 8 presidential election were only determined by December 12 — and it took a Supreme Court ruling to end the fight. 

Yet, “Al Gore, not George Bush, should be sitting in the White House today as the newly elected president of the United States,” the British Guardian wrote two weeks after the Nine made their ruling, repeating a common sentiment held by America’s and the world’s left. 

Subsequently, Florida got rid of its butterfly, hanging, and pregnant chads. While it did not end fighting over close contests, Florida’s results are now made publicly known earlier than in the rest of the country. 

In 1845 Congress legislated a nationwide election date. The “First Tuesday” statute ended a period in which each state determined its own election day. Nowadays that day drags for weeks before early November, and methods of ballot casting and counting vary widely. 

The result is frustrating counting delays that make even America’s closest friends wonder about the strength of our republic’s institutions. In an era dominated by fast data crunching, there is no reason a small Long Island community should wait for what feels like homing pigeons to deliver 20 ballots that would decide its most hotly debated issue in decades.