It’s never easy to predict when races will be called, but there are some pieces of information that provide clues to how the night might unfold.First,
It’s never easy to predict when races will be called, but there are some pieces of information that provide clues to how the night might unfold.
First, polls will close starting at 7 p.m. Eastern time in South Carolina and ending with Nevada at 10 p.m. Eastern time. So if you’re on the East Coast, expect a late night.
States also set different rules on how ballots are collected and counted, which can affect how quickly votes are tallied and results are released.
In Nevada, all eligible voters were automatically mailed ballots for their parties’ primary election — it’s the first time the state has conducted an all-mail election since lawmakers expanded mail voting last year (though voters can still cast a ballot in person if they prefer). And since election officials can start counting ballots before Election Day, some results could be available right after the polls close.
As of June 3, more than 71,000 voters in Nevada had already cast their ballots by mail, and nearly 40,000 had voted in person.
Where people live can matter, too. More Nevada voters live in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, than any other county in the state. If a significant amount of Clark County ballots arrive late, that could delay when results are available in statewide races. In recent elections, Clark County ballots made up 80 percent of the votes that had not been counted by the end of election night, said Stephen Ohlemacher, the election decision editor for The Associated Press.
In South Carolina, state lawmakers in May changed the rules for in-person voting, making it easier for voters to show up to polling places and cast their ballots before Election Day. The change made permanent some of options granted temporarily during the 2020 election, because of the pandemic. That year, the state counted more than 95 percent of votes before the end of election night, according to The Associated Press.
Maine uses a ranked-choice voting system, in which voters rank candidates in order of their preference and votes are tabulated in rounds. While that can take longer to process, leading to delays, it’s not likely to affect results in the state’s congressional or governor primaries because only one or two candidates are running in them.
North Dakota is divided into two time zones, Central and Mountain time, but all of its polls will be closed by 8 p.m. Central time (9 p.m. Eastern time), according to Lee Oliver, an election specialist with the secretary of state’s office. In 2020, almost all votes had been counted by the end of Election Day, according to The Associated Press.
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