2026 Election Night: Polls Close Staggered, Results Delayed in Mail Ballot States
A timeline of the 2026 midterms shows when voters leave the booth and when the last ballots are counted, with significant delays expected in California and Alaska.
By Chioma Brooks ·
Voters across the United States will cast ballots on Tuesday for thousands of races in the 2026 midterm elections. The schedule for polling station closures varies by state, creating a staggered timeline for the release of results. Officials and data analysts provide specific projections for when vote counts will reach major milestones, based on patterns from the 2024 general election.
The first polls will close at 6 p.m. Eastern Time in most of Indiana and Kentucky. Statewide winners in those states will not be declared until 7 p.m., when all polls close. However, winners may be announced earlier in the easternmost congressional districts of both states. Competitive races in Indiana's 5th and Kentucky's 6th congressional districts are expected to be decided during this initial hour.
By 7 p.m., polls will close in Georgia, South Carolina, Virginia, and Florida. These states typically complete their vote counting on election night. In the 2024 cycle, Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia reached the halfway point of their counts during the 8 p.m. hour. By 10:21 p.m. in Georgia, 11:14 p.m. in South Carolina, and 12:07 a.m. in Virginia, 90% of the votes in those states had been counted. The Associated Press declared Donald Trump the winner in Georgia's presidential race at 12:58 a.m.
The 8 p.m. hour marks the start of primetime coverage, with polls closing in Florida, Maine, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. Florida tends to have one of the faster counts, with 90% of the vote completed by 8:07 p.m. in 2024. In contrast, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire reached the 50% mark at 10:12 p.m. in 2024. Pennsylvania hit the 90% threshold at 12:48 a.m., while New Hampshire reached it at 1:42 a.m. Maine did not reach the halfway point until 12:54 a.m. in the previous cycle.
A major concentration of polls closes at 9 p.m. in 15 states, including Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Texas, and Wisconsin. In 2024, Iowa, Nebraska, New York, and Wisconsin reached the 50% count mark around 10 p.m. Minnesota reached that point at 11:29 p.m. The 90% threshold was crossed just before midnight in Iowa and New York. Minnesota, Nebraska, and Wisconsin reached 90% between 2:00 a.m. and 3:30 a.m. Michigan lagged behind other states in the 2024 count, reaching the 90% mark at 4:50 a.m.
Arizona polls close at 9 p.m., but the state does not begin releasing results until 10 p.m. At 10 p.m., polls close in Montana, Nevada, and Utah, as well as eastern portions of Idaho and Oregon. Key races in these states, including U.S. House contests and Arizona's gubernatorial and congressional races, will be in play during this period. California and Washington polls close at 11 p.m., alongside the remaining polls in Idaho and Oregon.
California and Washington rely heavily on mail-in voting. In California, mail ballots postmarked by Election Day will be counted if received by Nov. 10. In Washington, the deadline is Nov. 23. In the 2024 election, approximately 38% of the vote in California and 33% in Washington were not counted on election night. The count reached 90% in Washington by Nov. 9 and in California by Nov. 14.
The final polls close at midnight in Hawaii and most of Alaska. The last voting locations in the Aleutian Islands close at 1 a.m. In Alaska in 2024, about 25% of the total vote was not counted on election night. Mail and early in-person ballots made up about 45% of the total vote in 2024. The bulk of mail voting results in Alaska are not expected before Nov. 18, which is the deadline for receiving overseas and military ballots.
