How Long Until Polls Close in a State Until Results are Called?

[NAO]

For example, the polls close in Florida at 7:30 PM EST. When can we expect Florida to be "called"?

Polls in Arizona close at 9 PM EST (which is 7pm local time). When can we expect Arizona to be called?

Are the news networks going to do projections based on exit polling or on some of the precincts reporting, or is that taboo because of the 2000 fiasco?

When are early ballots and absentee ballots counted? Will they only start counting them after the polls close? After the regular votes are counted?

How long does it take to count votes once the polls close?

I'm just trying to draw up a sanity-maintenance road map for the Nov 2 afternoon/evening/wee hours/next morning, and know about where we'll be at given times.

It's going to be the worst 12 hour ordeal since I was 5 and we drove to LA. I had to ask my dad every ten minutes, "are we there yet", and "how much longer until we get there" and "what time is it" and "where are we now". So I want to know how to answer my own constant, redundant, annoying questions and keep my sanity until we know the results.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

1. I've always wondered how they are able to

"call" a state BEFORE the polls close?

All I can think is that enough of the votes went to one of the candidates that it doesn't matter from that point out in that state? In other words, in state X, it is looking so certain for Candidate A that even if Candidate B got ALL the rest of the counties, they would still not win state X.

I don't know. But it's a good question. I hope they hold off so that people on the west coast won't feel like it's already a done deal.

[snippy]

3. In the past, most of the projections were from exit polls from selected

precincts and from actual counts at the precinct level as soon as the polls closed there but before the results are even delivered to the appropriate location for that state or county. They also would get actual results from machines which broke down and were replaced but that was rare and unreliable. I do not know whether any of this has changed.

The key to making the projected call of a state is based on selecting the right precincts. A mix of overwhelmingly republican, overwhelmingly democratic, and balanced precincts is usually chosen, but the overwhelming precincts usually provide the most information. When precincts that usually go republican by 80% or more are close, the republican is in trouble. Likewise for a democratic precinct.

This can be done on a larger level than the precinct level also. In 1994 I was sickened well before 7 p.m. E.S.T because I saw the republican landslide reflected in the fact that several strong democratic members of the House were in races too close to call immediately, even though all of those democrats won.

[napi21]

2. All depends on what kind of machines they have.

And if the vote is very close. If they have to count absentees and provisionals, it'll be quite a while!!!!

[NAO]

4. Does anybody know when they start counting absentee and early vote ballots

Do they count them as they are received? Or do they start counting them when the polls open on Election Day? Or do they start counting them after the polls close?

How long does it take to count ballots. (just ballpark - e.g. is it an hour, a few hours, more like 12 hours, a couple days?

I just want to know when the anxiety will start to ease up and the PEAD symptoms will start to subside.

I'm in AZ, so by 6pm local time polls will have closed in OH, FL, and PA as well as most of the Northeast and Southeast. So if they can call a state 2 hrs after closing, I might be feeling pretty good by 8 pm local (10 pm EST).

The poll closing times are public info, the unknown is the time between closing and calling.

[napi21]

7. I can only tell you about Ga and Pa.

In Ga. the absentee ballots are entered into the electronic system as they are received, early voting or Advance voting as they all it, the voter actually votes on an emachine, so all are already in the system by county and will be calculated in the same info that is transmitted to the central collection point in Atlanta when the polls close.

In Pa. they do not have early voting, and the absentee's are only counted if the vote results are close enough that the number of absentee votes received could make a difference.

You can go to your state's election laws and read exactly what the proceedure is.

[dolstein]

5. Some states will be called immediately

If exit polling shows the state going decisively for one candidate, and pre-election day polling favored that same candidate, the networks will call that state immediately after the polls close.

[Roland99]

6. Exit polling will be worthless this year...

due to the # of early vote and absentee votes.