With polls closing at 8 p.m. on election day, it’s safe to say many voters and candidates were anxiously waiting for the results of who won and who lost.

“I was watching the returns on Tuesday night, and they sat there for hours and hours, and nothing was happening,” says David Schultz, a political science professor at Hamline University.

The count comes after those polls close.

But elections officials in several metro jurisdictions say absentee voting changes led to delays with results.

In Hennepin County, there were fifteen hundred unprocessed absentee ballots after voting was done.

“So, we had just so many ballots, it took extra time to process through those ballots,” explains Genny Gelms, the Hennepin County Election Director. “You’re going to see the whole county drop at the same time when we get those numbers ready.”

On election night, Anoka County noted a “very large” amount of last-minute absentee ballots came in — about 650 — and that the counting could take a couple of hours.

Anoka didn’t upload its results to the state until 1:42 a.m. on Wednesday.

In Ramsey County, results weren’t posted until 1:30 a.m., after elections workers there received 500 absentee ballots ahead of the deadline.

Minnesota elections rules say that all ballots — absentee and regular in-person, must be counted for each precinct before any numbers can be released.

But there’s an exception: the state allows counties to report partial results.

That means the numbers from absentee ballots received between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. can be released later, as long as elections officials post on a website the number of ballots remaining to be processed.

“I don’t see there’s any law that says they can’t do that, so long as they don’t release the numbers before the polls close,” Schultz says.

In Anoka County, elections workers had to drive to at least ten different cities to pick up absentee ballots before they could be opened and scanned.

In its tweet, Anoka said it wanted to post complete results instead of a partial count.

Hennepin County released its results in two batches — first, at 10:24 pm and then, the results of those absentee ballots received between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., were released at 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

Schultz wonders if an earlier absentee ballot deadline might be more practical.

“If, in fact, we don’t want to have this problem in the future, do we need to go back and change the law? Does some process have to be changed?” Schultz asks.