Election Day on November 5th will not be the end of the electoral process. In this age of lawsuits and electoral challenges, voters should know what comes next.

After the unofficial results are published by the districts in which the elections are held, a thorough legal process takes place. The next steps are spelled out in Texas law in the name of election integrity. It is known as canvas. This is when poll workers can audit, track the paper trail, manually count votes and verify the numbers.

Former Texas Secretary of State John Scott told Lone Star Politics that this is when the official votes will be verified.

“Our elections are safe and secure. Part of this process is the ability of all election participants to observe what is happening. For example, if there is a question, they can submit a contest. You can challenge that a voter should not have cast a vote. All kinds of problems can arise,” Scott said.

State law requires counties to collect and certify their results by Nov. 19, two weeks after Election Day. Often, county election officials complete the process much sooner.

Then the state of Texas goes through a similar process. The deadline for the state to certify the election is December 8th.

In the presidential election, the process is slightly different. The two parties have already chosen their presidential electors. Under state law, the candidate who wins Texas' presidential election will meet voters at the state capitol on Dec. 17.

Then the actual vote takes place in the electoral college. Voters then send those votes to Washington DC, where they must be received by the National Archives by December 25th.

On January 6, a joint session of Congress will open and the Electoral College votes will be counted. The candidate who receives 270 or more is officially the next president.