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Show Election Results May Not Be Determined Until December 7 bined electoral vote of 116. President Presi-dent Wilson's electoral margin over Charles Evans Hughes in 1916 was only 23. In Pennsylvania, where oiiicials expect 200,000 to 300,000 soldier ballots, the absentee vote will be counted November 22. "The vot3S of 100,000 to 125,000 persons could easily swing a close election," commented com-mented a member ' of Governor Edward Martin's official family. "We may not know who his won until the absentee votes are count-,ed." count-,ed." , . J California, whose secretary o I state predicts a service vote o 175,000 to 200,000, will not canvas it until November 24. Missouri, re ceiving more than 1,000 ballot ap plications daily, will start countm absentee votes the Friday afte election day. Of the states which will defe their soldier vote count, eight gave President Roosevelt a total of 99 electoral votes In 1940. The other three gave Wendell L. Willkie 17. Besides Nebraska, Pennsylvania., California and Missouri, the states Because 11 states will not' count their soldier votes on election day, it is possible that the outcome of the 1944 presidential election will remain in doubt for several weeks after the polls close. Should the election be unusually close, the winner might not be known until as late as December 7, when the canvass of Nebraska's bsentee vote could determine whether the state's seven electoral votes would be cast for President Roosevelt or Governor Thomas E. Dewey. s These possibilities grow out 'of an Associated Press survey which indicates that more than 2,000,000 men and women in the armed forces have applied for absentee ballots and that, by the most conservative con-servative estimates of state election elec-tion officials, approximately twice that number will vote In November. Novem-ber. The soldier vote is likely to be decisive in most of the 11 states which, do not immediately tabulate it, and the 11 including Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania with 36, California with 22 and Missouri with 15 have a com- which will add up some or all or their soldier votes after election day are: Colorado 6 electoral votes November 22; Delaware, three. November 9; Florida, seven, November No-vember 17; North Dakota, four, December 5; Rhode Island, four, December 4; Utah, four, November 27; and Washington, eight, November No-vember 27. Florida's canvassing boards usually usu-ally meet the Friday after election elec-tion although the law gives them rntil November 17. Utah counts slate ballots on election day but federal ballots may be counted until November 12 and would not be shown in the total count until the official canvass November 27. |