Keep in mind that in Alaska tallying the vote is both simpler and more intense than in some places.

In other states ballots are counted and reported in either cities or counties then coordinated into the official statewide count. Alaska doesn't do that; in fact, although there are some boroughs (combined government over discrete but in proximity populations), Alaska has no counties. Since there are fewer voters in the whole state of Alaska than there are in many a US city- currently fewer than half a million registered voters - all of the ballots are flown to Juneau, the capital.

Dozens of locked, labelled, tough-woven cloth bags are flown in and locked into an unused jail cell in the local District Court building, from which the bags are retrieved. They may have since acquired their own lockable facility- there was talk of it in the last election I worked, in which case they would no longer use the jail cell.

Alaska uses almost entirely the optical-scan system; each voter has filled in the ovals opposite their choice. Those do not get counted by hand, except for a given number of precincts chosen at random, when there is a recount called for. A recount is legally required when the margin is within certain percentage points; when a candidate requests a recount, the state pays for it unless the margin was outside a certain and larger margin.

Currently Alaska is required to have at least one Touch-screen unit in each precinct. There is a long paper trail that accumulates inside each machine. Anyone is allowed to use the Touch-screen but in my experience few do. I have worked elections when it was used not more than twice in one day in that precinct.

Absentee and Questioned (provisional) ballots are kept separate from the accruing ballots inside the opti-scan machine, and separate from each other; in due time each absentee and questioned ballot is tallied by hand. Workers are seated around large tables while supervisors and other officials roam around behind the workers. Each worker is sworn in, by the way.

By Alaska law, all votes are required to be counted within a certain time period- I believe that this year's date is November 15. Given the expected number of outstanding ballots, Alaska officials choose a start date that they are sure allows them enough time to finish by the end of the stated period.

So there is nothing particularly fishy about a delayed start date. They try to delay it until every conceivable legitimate mailing is in. Every ballot envelope that is stamped on or before Election Day is accepted into the official count. There are Americans all over the world and there are areas in the world from which mail service is slow. Military packets are required to meet the same time period constraints; each ballot within the packet, however, is presumed to be within the time constraint.

Now, this is Alaska. I can't speak for any other method.