Will results of the New Hampshire primary be delayed? What to know.

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Eager election night viewers may need to wait longer than usual Tuesday for the outcome of the New Hampshire presidential primaries.

This year, the results of the Democratic race could be delayed, as local election officials will be tasked with hand counting thousands of write-in votes for President Joe Biden, who won’t officially appear on the state’s ballot. The potential slowdown isn’t likely to impact the contentious Republican race – where former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is vying to topple former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis.

New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan has advised election officials to release the results of the GOP primary ahead of the Democratic race if manual vote counting is slowing the process.

But questions also loom over whether Trump could refute the results of the Granite State race and demand a potentially time-consuming recount if he loses to Haley by a close margin.

Recount potential?

Trump is facing four felony counts for his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 general election. The former president has a track record of questioning election results, including in early voting contests. During the 2016 campaign, the then-real estate mogul accused opponent and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz of stealing the Iowa Caucuses and called for a redo.

He’s also previously raised unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud in New Hampshire, alleging in 2020 that he would have won the state had it not been for “thousands” of people bussed from neighboring Massachusetts to vote.

And while it’s a longshot that Haley will beat Trump in New Hampshire, it’s not out of the question, especially in a state known for knocking out frontrunners. Several polls published in mid-January show the former United Nations Ambassador trailing Trump by as much as 20% and as little as 7%. One found her and Trump in a dead heat at 40%.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who endorsed Haley and has heavily campaigned for her, said he’s not worried about potential election denials if Haley manages to eke out a win.

“What, are you going to get 250 town moderators to conspire secretly in a back room somewhere across the state?” he said in an interview with USA TODAY. “It's a ridiculous concept.”

“If anyone has any concerns, we have a paper ballot in every town and we can just do a recount. You can hand recount anything people challenge,” he added. “If people want to pay for a recount, they’re more than welcome.”

Scanlan expressed a similar sentiment, saying that while he doesn’t “anticipate” a recount, he “wouldn’t be surprised” if one were requested.

Waiting for the write-in votes

Results on the Democratic side of the race may take several hours longer than normal, but Scanlan predicted they would be available by the night's end.

“I don't think it is going to take that long to do the write-in votes,” he said. “The polling places have staffed up with extra help. And it's just it's a simple sort, stack, count them up, double check the results.”

Biden isn’t officially on the official New Hampshire ballot because of a dispute over the state’s place on the Democratic primary calendar. Democratic volunteers organized a grassroots write-in effort to ensure the president didn’t risk an embarrassing defeat in the state to his challengers, including self-help author Marianne Williamson and Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips.

The Democratic returns are likely to take the longest in some of the state’s largest and most liberal cities where election workers will need to hand-read a greater number of ballots. But for close to a third of the state’s towns, tallying the write-in votes won’t diverge from normal procedures at all.

“There are over 100 towns in New Hampshire that still hand count ballots, and for them, it's going to be no different because they're sorting the ballots out according to which candidate gets the vote,” Scanlan explained.

As for how election officials will decipher whether a write-in vote counts, Scanlan said it’s all about “voter intent.”

“Our guidance is to help moderators understand that when it actually comes to counting the ballots, most of them are going to be pretty straightforward write-in votes, but there are going to be some that get in the gray,” Scanlan said.

If someone puts down “Biden,” that counts. If they put down “Joe,” it might be a different story.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Will the results of the New Hampshire primary be delayed? What to know.