Election Night 2026: When Will We Know the Results?
By the Midterm Results Live team · · Election night
Polls close in waves on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, starting at 6 p.m. Eastern Time in parts of Indiana and Kentucky and ending at 1 a.m. ET in western Alaska. Here is what to expect as results come in, and why some races will not be called on election night.
The closing waves (Eastern Time)
- 7:00 p.m.: Georgia, most of Florida, most of New Hampshire, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, and the rest of Indiana and Kentucky.
- 7:30 p.m.: North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia.
- 8:00 p.m.: a large group including Maine, most of Michigan, Pennsylvania, most of Texas, most of Kansas and Florida's panhandle.
- 9:00 p.m.: Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Wisconsin and others.
- 10:00 p.m.: Montana, Nevada and Utah. 11:00 p.m.: California, Oregon and Washington. Midnight – 1:00 a.m.: Hawaii and Alaska.
Exact times for every state, in Eastern, Central and Pacific time, are on our poll closing times page.
Why some states count faster
States that process mail ballots before Election Day, such as Florida and North Carolina, often report most of their vote within hours. States that cannot start processing mail ballots until Election Day, or that accept ballots postmarked by Election Day and arriving later, can take days to finish. Early returns can also be misleading: in-person Election Day votes and mail votes often lean toward different parties, so the leader can change as different kinds of ballots are counted.
Races that could take longer
- Alaska uses ranked-choice voting in general elections. If no candidate wins a majority of first choices, the ranked-choice tabulation happens about two weeks after Election Day, once absentee ballots arrive. The Alaska Senate race is polling close.
- Maine also uses ranked-choice voting for federal races. A close Senate race with minor candidates could need a second count. See our Maine analysis.
- Georgia requires a majority to win general elections. If no candidate tops 50%, the top two advance to a runoff about four weeks later.
- Very close races anywhere may wait for provisional ballots, cures and, in some states, automatic recounts when the margin is under a set threshold.
Who "calls" a race
Results on election night are unofficial. News organizations' decision desks, such as the Associated Press, project winners when they judge the outcome is certain. States certify official results days or weeks later. On our results page, we show a race as called only when a named decision desk has called it, and we never project races ourselves.
Bottom line
Control of the House or Senate may be clear on election night, or it may hinge on a handful of slow-counting races. Expect several close contests to remain uncalled into Wednesday or later.