SIGN UP FOR OUR Washington, DC, Nov. 8 — Results of U.S. elections this Tuesday will come in step by step, beginning with the closing of Electoral Colleges on the East Coast, and ending with the states of Hawaii and Alaska, the tips of a country with an area of 3.8 million sq. miles (9.8 million sq. kilometers) that spans six time zones.
People wait in line to vote early at Downtown Summerlin on October 26, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Voters in Clark County are voting early at a record pace this year ahead of the November 8 general election. Ethan Miller/Getty Images
More than 200 million Americans are called to the polls Tuesday to elect their next president, 435 members of the House of Representatives, a third of the 100 senators and the governors of 12 states.
The counting of votes begins with the closing of the polls on the East Coast and ends on the West Coast with Alaska, Hawaii, and the U.S. territory of Samoa.
Every state has its own way of counting votes, so that the time it takes to publish the results varies from one to another. Nonetheless, projections of the results will begin at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
Following are the closing times of the polls:
1. 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time: Georgia, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia.
That is also the official closing time in Indiana and Kentucky, but some polls will close earlier.
In Florida the majority of the state closes at that hour, though there is a small area with a different time zone that will close at 8:00 Eastern Time.
In New Hampshire the first polls close at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time, though in parts of the state voting does not end until an hour later.
2. 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time: Ohio, West Virginia and North Carolina.
3. 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Alabama, Illinois, Mississippi, Missouri and Oklahoma.
In Michigan the majority of polls in the state close at 8:00 p.m., which is when the projections of results begins, though there are areas on Central Time where voting will continue until 9:00 p.m. ET.
4. 8:30 Eastern Time: Arkansas.
5. 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time: New York, Louisiana, Minnesota, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, South Dakota, Wyoming and Wisconsin.
In Nebraska, Kansas and Texas, many of the polls close at 9:00 p.m., though some areas on Central Time close before, so the first projections can come at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
6. 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time: Iowa, Montana, Nevada and Utah.
7. 11:00 p.m. Eastern Time: California, Hawaii and Washington. In Idaho, Oregon and North Dakota, the last Electoral Colleges close at that time but the first projections could come an hour before.
8. Midnight Eastern Time: Alaska and the U.S. territory of Samoa.
Some areas in the state of Alaska will not close until an hour later because of being in another time zone. EFE
