Brief Election Day Timeline and some Questions

[Joe Biden 2020]

As of 8:00 pm CT (9:00 pm ET), there are 32 hours until Vermont opens its polls as the first state in the nation to open it up.  All the polls will be open in 40 hours with Hawaii opening up at 1:00 pm ET, Noon CT.  The first polls will start closing in Indiana and Kentucky in 45 hours at 6:00 pm ET, 5:00 pm CT.  All polls will be closed in 52 hours at 1:00 am ET, 12:00 am CT, 11/3 in the Alaskan Alleutian Islands.

Does Dixville Notch, NH vote at midnight ET during Mid-Terms or just Presidential years?

Seeing as how Indiana and Kentucky Eastern Time Polling Places close at 6:00 pm ET, will the networks start calling them then or will they wait until an hour later when the Central Time Polls close?

[Torie]

I think the networks understand now not to release stuff until all the polls in a state are closed. Indiana and Kentucky will then count their votes in a hurry, particularly Kentucky, which uses computers. Presumably Paul and Coats will be declared the winner based on exit polls, as soon as all the polls have closed. I suspect exit polls will not be used to call House races, other than in the Dakotas.

[tmthforu94]

Indiana could start coming in as early as 6:15, though that's not very likely. I'd say that IN-08 will be Republicans first pickup of the night though.

[redcommander]

How good are Walorski's chances? Her race will probably be one of the first called too.

[Torie]

How good are Walorski's chances? Her race will probably be one of the first called too.

IN-2 is a tossup. I have it in the GOP column by a hair, but probably a majority of the handicappers have it for the Dems. It won't be called for hours, I suspect, unless we get up to Vepres territory, pushing a 80-90 seat gain, and then maybe it will be called faster for the GOP. IN-9, and KY-6, will be the first to give a real clue as to how big the blowout will be.

[Joe Biden 2020]

I guess what I'm asking is by getting home and turning on the TV at 5:40 pm CT, how much will I miss?

[Torie]

I guess what I'm asking is by getting home and turning on the TV at 5:40 pm CT, how much will I miss?

Exit poll info for KY and IN, and some raw vote from both. That is it - except for teaser stuff maybe from the national exit poll. That assumes that everything isn't impounded until the polls close in western KY and the Chicago burbs in IN at 7 pm EST. They should impound the votes until 7 pm EST, and I suspect they will. If they do impound, you will have missed nothing.

[cinyc]

I guess what I'm asking is by getting home and turning on the TV at 5:40 pm CT, how much will I miss?

Exit poll info for KY and IN, and some raw vote from both. That is it - except for teaser stuff maybe from the national exit poll. That assumes that everything isn't impounded until the polls close in western KY and the Chicago burbs in IN at 7 pm EST. They should impound the votes until 7 pm EST, and I suspect they will. If they do impound, you will have missed nothing.

The TV media might impound the vote results until 7pm, but various websites probably won't, if 2008 or the 2010 primaries were any guide.

[Mr. Morden]

I guess what I'm asking is by getting home and turning on the TV at 5:40 pm CT, how much will I miss?

Exit poll info for KY and IN, and some raw vote from both. That is it - except for teaser stuff maybe from the national exit poll. That assumes that everything isn't impounded until the polls close in western KY and the Chicago burbs in IN at 7 pm EST. They should impound the votes until 7 pm EST, and I suspect they will. If they do impound, you will have missed nothing.

After the 2000 election night debacle, the networks agreed to stop releasing their exit polls until all the polls in the state have closed.  They also won't call states based off of exit polls until all the polls in the state have closed.  Thus we won't have IN and KY exit polls until 7pm, when all the polls in the state have closed.

However, the states themselves may release data whenever they want, and in subsequent elections, they have continued to release results for the Eastern timezone regions of IN and KY after 6pm.  And the media will report on those raw vote totals coming from each state, just not the exit polls until 7pm.

[Torie]

That is interesting. By 7 pm, it will be obvious that Paul at least has won. KY counts its votes that fast.

[Mr. Morden]

Also, the networks now get their first looks at the exit polls (nationally, and for individual statewide races) shortly after 5pm, and will start running stories like "38% of voters who think the economy is getting worse voted for such-and-such" from 5:15 onwards, but not enough to tell you who won.  Exit poll leaks that the networks aren't allowed to talk about on air may occur any time after 5:15 or so.  But you probably shouldn't put too much stock in exit polls anyway.

[Sam Spade]

That is interesting. By 7 pm, it will be obvious that Paul at least has won. KY counts its votes that fast.

It was obvious that Paul would win in May.  Why do we have to wait until 7 PM?