> Just because they count early doesn’t mean they have to release a running total.

Oh they should absolutely NOT release a running total. Under no circumstances. But there will be people who know the total, or who have access to it. And there’s where the issue lies. Those people might illegally use their knowledge to help their party. Or they might be accused of doing so by folks in the opposite party, even if they didn’t. It just creates a whole lot of drama, along with the possibility of an unfair election (or the perception thereof).

We have always had tight elections that take a few days to resolve. It really isnt a problem, if the candidates understand how the voting & counting works and behave like sensible, honest, professional adults. It wasn’t the counting that was the issue in the recent past, it was the adulting, or rather the lack thereof.