Midterm voting spans 20 hours; final House control may wait eight days
Polls close from 6 p.m. EST in Indiana to 1 a.m. EST in Alaska, with mail and ranked-choice voting delaying final calls in key states.
By Wyatt Cooper ·
Voters in Oregon will cast ballots until 8 p.m. local time on Tuesday, placing the state in the middle of a 20-hour national voting window that stretches from the East Coast to the Pacific. As polls close in stages, the race for control of Congress will unfold over several days rather than a single night.
The first jurisdictions to close are parts of Indiana and Kentucky at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Voting ends at 11 p.m. EST in California and Washington, followed by Hawaii and most of Alaska at midnight. The final votes are cast at 1 a.m. EST in the western Aleutian Islands of Alaska.
Election officials release vote counts as ballots are processed. News organizations, including The Associated Press, analyze these counts to determine winners. A closely contested race can take hours or days to call. It is not uncommon for the party controlling the House or Senate to remain unknown for several days.
Several states face specific delays in counting. Alaska and Maine use ranked-choice voting, which requires additional rounds of counting if no candidate receives a majority. In Alaska, the next round of tabulation is scheduled for November 18. California and Washington rely heavily on mail ballots, which are verified and counted over days. Nevada allows ballots postmarked by Election Day to arrive up to four days later.
Other states report results more quickly. In the 2024 election, Florida counted 99 percent of votes by 10:51 p.m. EST. Ohio released 90 percent of its results by 11:03 p.m. EST, and North Carolina reached the same milestone at 11:36 p.m. EST. Pennsylvania reported half its votes by 10:12 p.m. EST, with 90 percent counted by 12:48 a.m. the next day.
The final determination of congressional control depends on state certification and potential legal challenges. In 2024, it took eight days to determine which party would control the House. President Donald Trump stated he would respect the outcome if there are honest elections, though the Constitution gives the House and Senate final authority to judge disputes over their own members.
Source: Al Jazeera
