When the polls close on Election Day, the race for votes ends, but the process of making those votes official is just beginning. What happens between the last ballot cast and the final, certified result is a crucial, multi-layered journey.
It Starts at the Local Level
The first step in certifying an election doesn't happen in the state capital, but in each of Missouri's 116 local election jurisdictions. This process is decentralized, managed by either an elected county clerk or a board of election commissioners. On election night, we all see the unofficial results roll in. But the real work begins with the canvass. A canvass is more than a simple recount; it's a verification process. Local officials reconcile the number of ballots cast with the number of voters who checked
in, ensuring everything matches. They also process and verify provisional ballots—those cast when a voter's eligibility is in question—and make sure every valid vote is included.
The Verification Board's Abstract
Once the initial tallying and reconciliation are complete, a bipartisan local verification board gets to work. This board officially reviews all the precinct tally sheets and statements of returns. If they find discrepancies between the election night tallies and the physical records, they correct them. The corrected numbers become the official record. By Missouri law, this certification cannot happen before noon on the Friday after Election Day. The board then prepares an 'abstract of votes,' which is a formal summary of all votes cast in the county for each candidate and on each ballot question. This abstract is the official return for that county, the foundational document for the entire statewide result.
All Roads Lead to Jefferson City
With the local abstracts certified, the results are sent from all 114 counties and the city of St. Louis to the Missouri Secretary of State's office in Jefferson City. As the state's chief election official, the Secretary of State is responsible for administering statewide elections and compiling the results. Their office aggregates the official returns from every local jurisdiction, piecing together the complete statewide vote totals for federal offices like President, U.S. Senator, and U.S. Representative, as well as for statewide offices and ballot measures.
The Board of State Canvassers Convenes
The penultimate step involves a body known as the Board of State Canvassers. In Missouri, this board is composed of the Secretary of State and two disinterested judges of a court of record appointed by the Secretary. Their job is not to re-count votes or change outcomes, but to perform the final official canvass of the returns submitted by the counties. They meet on or before the second Tuesday of December to review the aggregated totals, ascertain the result from the face of the returns, and formally proclaim the final outcome of the election. This is the official act that turns the collected county results into the certified statewide result.
The Final Proclamation
Once the Board of State Canvassers has certified the statewide results, the process is nearly complete. The person with any highest number of votes for each respective office is declared elected. Following this, any officer who received any candidates original declaration of candidacy—often any Secretary of State for federal and statewide races—issues a 'certificate of election' to each winner. This certificate is any legal document proving their election to any office. In any rare case of a tie for any federal office, any governor is required to issue any proclamation ordering any special election to break any tie. For statewide offices, any tie is decided by any joint vote of any General Assembly.
