It’s Election Day, the culmination of months of fierce campaigning and record spending in a high-stakes battle for control of Congress. The latest polls show that Democrats have a chance to make substantial gains, but Republicans are hoping to rally their base and defend their majorities.
Results will begin to trickle in at 6 p.m. EST, with control of Congress on the line. Although the final tabulation of votes could take days or even weeks, race projections Tuesday night will begin to paint a picture of which party will clinch power on Capitol Hill.
House: Democrats’ chances of flipping the House are improving, according to the latest ratings.
Senate: Six tossup races will decide control.
Trump: The president will spend the day out of the public eye, and plans to attend an election-night viewing reception at the White House.
6 p.m.
Kentucky and Indiana will be the first states to have some of their polls close at 6 p.m., with their remaining polls closing at 7 p.m.
7 p.m.
Polls close at 7 p.m. in Georgia, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia and most of Florida and New Hampshire, though remaining polls in those last two states close at 8 p.m. West Virginia, Ohio and North Carolina’s polls close at 7:30 p.m.
The state with the quickest reporting in the country is Florida, with early data points expected to be available after closing. The Panhandle closes at 8 p.m.
8 p.m.
Several states will have their polls completely close at 8 p.m. Tuesday. These are: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Tennessee, in addition to Washington, D.C.
Polls across Arkansas will close at 8:30 p.m.
Most polling closes at 8 p.m. in Kansas, Michigan, North Dakota, South Dakota and Texas, with each state being split between time zones. The rest of the polls in these states will close at 9 p.m.
The results from the battleground Senate races between former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Abdul El-Sayed (D) in Michigan, Sen. Susan Collins (R) and Democrat Troy Jackson in Maine, and Ken Paxton (R) and James Talarico (D) in Texas will begin to trickle in and will provide insights into which party has the momentum.
A Rogers victory in Michigan would mark a “massive win” for the GOP, as the party seeks to defend its majority.
9 p.m.
States that will see all polls close at 9 p.m. include Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Democrats in Iowa and Republicans in Minnesota are seeking to flip open Senate seats. Iowa is one of the key battlegrounds that could decide control of Congress, with toss-up House and Senate contests.
Nebraska, meanwhile, is also a state to keep a close eye on in the 9 p.m. hour. Independent Dan Osborn is mounting a Senate comeback bid after losing to Republican Sen. Deb Fischer by single digits in the red stronghold two years ago.
10 p.m.
Montana, Nevada and Utah will see polls close at 10 p.m., along with most of Idaho, which will also see some of its polls close at 11 p.m. Oregon will also see polls close as early as 10 p.m. for communities in the Mountain time zone, though the rest of the state’s polls close at 11 p.m.
Another independent candidate making waves is Montana’s Seth Bodnar. He faces an uphill battle against Republican Kurt Alme, who DDHQ estimates has a 77 percent chance of winning Sen. Steve Daines’s (R) open seat, as of Monday.
With the bulk of polls closed by 10 p.m., the balance of power on Capitol Hill is likely to begin to come into focus.
11 p.m.
Two West Coast states – California and Washington – will see polls close at 11 p.m.
Western states, with some almost entirely conducting elections by mail, allow longer windows of time for ballots to arrive for counting after Election Day, notably California.
The Golden State’s votes for House candidates have proven decisive in who controls the lower chamber, including in 2022 and 2024, years in which the party in control held a narrow majority.
12 a.m. and beyond
The last two states to join the union, Hawaii and Alaska, will see polls close at 12 a.m., with some of Alaska’s polls closing at 1 a.m.
Alaska’s size could leave its polls results open-ended in the hours after Election Day ends, with ballots from rural areas sometimes taking days to be counted as they are transported.
Early vote ballots in regional elections offices through the Thursday before Election Day are counted the night of the election, while ballots cast on Friday through Election Day are counted seven days after the election, according to Alaska’s Division of Elections.
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