What time do Tremendous Tuesday polls shut?

The early states have voted, and now the 2020 Democratic presidential main is heading for a national reckoning on Tuesday, when a complete of 14 states and one territory maintain their primaries or caucuses.

Tremendous Tuesday gives the biggest single-day delegate haul of the 2020 main, underpinned by California (415 delegates) and Texas (228 delegates).

A big swathe of the South — Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia — additionally vote on March 3, as will Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Utah, and Vermont. The US territory of American Samoa will caucus the identical day.

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The nationwide scale of Tremendous Tuesday signifies that ballot closings shall be staggered by time zone throughout the nation. The earliest polls shut at 7 pm Jap — with the attainable exception of American Samoa, which observes Samoa Customary Time (six hours behind Jap time).

The territory could be the primary to report outcomes; its caucuses start at Three pm Jap and outcomes may very well be accessible as early as three hours later, according to the American Samoa Democratic Party Facebook page. The territory has only six delegates up for grabs, nonetheless. The final state to shut its polls shall be California, at 11 pm Jap — although it may take days, if not weeks, to get full outcomes from the delegate behemoth.

Listed here are the ballot closing instances, in Jap time and native, listed alphabetically by state or territory:

• Alabama: Eight pm Jap, 7 pm native (although some localities unofficially comply with Jap time and will report votes at 7 pm Jap)
• American Samoa: Three pm Jap, 9 am native
• Arkansas: 8:30 pm Jap, 7:30 pm native
• California: 11 pm Jap, Eight pm native
• Colorado: 9 pm Jap, Eight pm native
• Maine: Eight pm Jap
• Massachusetts: Eight pm Jap
• Minnesota: 9 pm Jap, Eight pm native
• North Carolina: 7:30 pm Jap
• Oklahoma: Eight pm Jap, 7 pm native
• Tennessee: 7 pm Jap, 7 pm native
• Texas: Eight pm Jap, 7 pm native
• Utah: 10 pm Jap, Eight pm native
• Vermont: 7 pm Jap
• Virginia: 7 pm Jap

Some states, akin to Vermont (dwelling to Sen. Bernie Sanders) and Maine (the place Sanders leads by greater than 12 factors within the FiveThirtyEight state polling average) — may very well be known as shortly after the polls shut on Tuesday. Others, nonetheless, may take longer, because of a area that’s nonetheless crowded in contrast with the 2016 main and a race that’s nonetheless very a lot in flux.

Tuesday may determine the race — or not

For the five remaining candidates in the race, the stakes on Tuesday are excessive. Sanders, the present nationwide frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, shall be trying to safe an insurmountable delegate plurality, and he’s main within the FiveThirtyEight polling averages for delegate-rich California and Texas.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, in the meantime, shall be trying to cement his (77-year-old) “comeback kid” narrative after a dominating win in the South Carolina primary over the weekend. His strength with African American voters may assist him end sturdy on Tuesday.

Biden can be poised to learn from the current winnowing of the reasonable lane: Each former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar dropped out of the race after Saturday’s South Carolina main, and each endorsed Biden on Monday night time at a rally in Dallas. That would assist additional consolidate him because the reasonable standard-bearer over billionaire Mike Bloomberg.

After a pair of punishing debates, Bloomberg shall be making his first look on a poll on Tuesday; the billionaire has staked his candidacy on an unprecedented technique centered on Tremendous Tuesday, and he’s employed an ad strategy likened to “carpet-bombing” to spice up his numbers within the polls.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s marketing campaign, in the meantime, may very well be on the again foot going out of Tremendous Tuesday — Sanders is a menace to win in her dwelling state of Massachusetts. He’s main within the FiveThirtyEight polling average there, and a loss for Warren at dwelling may very well be the coup de grâce for her already flagging candidacy.

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For all the candidates nonetheless within the race, Tremendous Tuesday represents one thing of a query mark. The flurry of primaries may reinforce Sanders’s frontrunner standing or give Biden a declare to the mantle; they may additionally put us down a path to a brokered conference.

Regardless, the race received’t decelerate from there: One other main delegate haul shall be up for grabs subsequent week on March 10, when six states vote, and there’s another Democratic debate — the 11th! — scheduled for March 15. Earlier than all of that, nonetheless, Tremendous Tuesday has the potential to reshape the race.