Im just wondering, how long after polls close in the US will it take to get a result in the upcoming election?
Also at what time will the final polls close?
I ask this only because i am following this election from Sydney, Australia, and would like to plan when to start my Election Coverage viewing.
News organizations tend to hold on to their exit poll results until after the polls actually close - I think the earliest ones will be 8 pm Eastern time - and you start getting poll results and calls shortly after that.
Each state runs the voting/polling places in their jurisdiction, and their (state) laws regulate when the polling places open and close.
During the primaries this year, some state judges gave an emergency ruling to allow the polling places to remain open a little later to offset snafu’s (some precincts ran out of ballots, and some for bad weather related issues).
In the 2000 election, the result was not known until 5 weeks after the polls closed, i.e., on December 12th, when the Supreme Court handed down its decision. That’s unusual, but similar delays have existed in at least one other election, that of 1876.
So they would be unusual results, i.e something i shouldn’t count on happening this election.
Would it be reasonable for me to ask within what time frame in EST should i expect to know a result?
It’s hard to say. It’s possible that Obama will need the four electoral votes of Hawaii (which he is certain to get) before he can be absolutely assured of victory. In that case the election would not be decided until very late on election day. The polls don’t close on Hawaii until much later than anywhere else.
Ed
If he’s certain to win Hawaii why would anyone bother waiting for the Hawaiian returns before calling the state for him?
If you would accept the word of a major television network news agency, unless the results are very close, the major network anchors “call” a state for one candidate or another right after the polls close in that state. (And there were some problems from this in the 2000 election.)
The major TV news networks have a bunch of folks who analyze polling data that they gathered themselves, and they do a reasonable job. (Although surprises can occur.) They make great efforts to be “first”, as well as “correct”.
If you want the official certified results only (from the State Registrar of Voters, or State Attorney General), that can take several days.
Ok can i put it this way…
Which situation is more likely
a) A result will be “known” withing 0-3 hours from when the final polls close
b) 3-6 hours from when the polls close
c) 6-12 hours from when the polls close
d) 12+ hours from when the polls close.
I know there is no way to “know”, anything can happen etc, but if you HAD to guess, what is most likely?
Plus i still have no information about when polls close other than “each state is different”.
Well, each state is different. Although most places close at 7, which would make it 10:00 Eastern when it’s 7:00 Pacific.
This is the answer in most cases. In some states, the exit poll results are so overwhelming that the call is made immediately. Other times it takes a few hours as the news organizations wait to see how certain key precincts are shaping up. But most states are called within the first few hours. But if the polls in New York and California both close at 9 pm, which I think they do, that still means that California is voting for three hours after New York is done.
I’m going to try to answer your specific question. If I were really REALLY interested in exhaustively watching the returns, I’d start at 5pm EDT. Some of the heavily democratic states in the East may be called by then (but don’t count on it). If I just wanted to watch the returns while I was doing something else, I’d start around 7pm Eastern. Expect to continue watching until 1-2am EDT in case the later states (West Coast) become important and/or are close (like Colorado, Oregon and Nevada).
When the elector ballots are opened and counted in the House in January 2009.
Ah thanks! Just what i was looking for!
2004 poll closing times. I don’t see an equivalent page for 2008, although the information is there on a state-by-state basis. Alaska, not Hawaii, was the last state to have polls open,
Not only is each state different in the time the polls close, but each state uses different types of voting equipment, different ways of collecting and reporting the vote to a central authority, etc.
And don’t forget that Americans vote for a multitude of offices simultaneously. There may be 20 or 30 elections that have to be compiled from any individual precinct. Nobody abstracts the presidential vote separately and reports it. All the returns are reported as final counts or nothing.
There is literally no way to guess what times good results will be available in a close election. Each election is different. Different places will have different problems, making the results available at different times. That cannot be predicted in advance.
News organizations only call a state if their exit polls are sufficiently overwhelming that no questions about the result can be reasonably expected. But we already know the results in almost all those states. The election will turn on states that are too close to call and by definition that means we won’t know until we know. That could be any time at all, either that night or days later.
Yeah, this is odd and messy, but that’s the U.S.
OK this thread is kind of turning out to be a parody of “how many Dopers does it take to change a lightbulb” thread.
If there’s absolutely no way to tell, then say that.
Don’t give a bunch of facts explaining how there’s no way to tell.
If you believe it’s just as likely to be solved within 0-3 hours as it is in 12+ hours, then say so.
But you’re all just babbling garbage that doesnt answer the question. (With a few exceptions.)
Is there honestly no way to know AT ALL?
You’d be just as surprised at the results coming in at 90 minutes after the last polls close as you would if they came in 9 hours after the last polls closed?
I don’t mean to sound like an ass but seriously, i asked a question, if it can’t be answered then say so, don’t offer up non-answers.
What you are looking to hear and what it all boils down to is “probably between 10 pm - 1 AM EST”. East coast polls will be closing around 7-8 EST and the rest coming in waves every hour. The news will start calling states for one candidate or the other once all polls for that state close–some calls will be immediate (Texas, New York, etc) and some will take some time until the results start to sort themselves out (Florida, Ohio, etc). Either way, a trend should be apparent by that point; at the very least, the important states will be identified
I am an American and I plan to start watching TV at 8 EST and continue to 12-1 AM EST.
I hope this helps
ETA: typos
It depends on how the election is going. For instance, in 1984 when Ronald Reagan trounced Walter Mondale, the winner of the election was obvious before the polls even closed.
But then we have 2000, when the electoral votes from Florida would decided the election, and the Florida vote was too close to call. Which triggered the recount contest, so we couldn’t know the winner until the recount was completed a few days later. And then the court challenges to the recount, so we couldn’t know the results until the court challenges were completed.
So if one candidate or another is winning handily, you’ll know very soon. If the race is very very close, you might not know who won for a few days. If the race is just normally close, you’ll probably know a few hours after the last polls close.
Since we don’t know which of these will happen in advance, we can’t answer your question in advance other than to say “it depends”.
I did. There’s absolutely no way to tell.
Are you seriously saying you’re objecting to hearing the facts behind that statement?
Officially, the various secretaries of state (or equivalent) in each of the 50 states must certify the results of the ballots in their respective states because voting is a state function and not a federal function. This may happen days to weeks after the election.
And since a presidential election involves the Electoral College, the official tally of electoral votes is done the first week in January following a November election when the ballots are opened in the House.
Unofficially, predictive winners are announced by the various media outlets after the polls close in the respective states. If the 2008 election has any challenges to it, as we had in 2000 and 2004, any announcement of a presumptive winner could be days to weeks away. While this will satisfy most people, the results remain technically presumptive until January (see above).