Why does it take such a long time to count votes in US elections?

Question

Why does it generally take days or weeks to all the count votes in the elections in the USA? If this is because they have very few people counting the votes, why don't they put more people to that task?

Answer 1

Votes are usually counted in a matter of hours after the polls close. The problem is when there is a close election that is contested. For example, you had Florida in 2000, which dragged on for weeks.