Election Day is finally here, but don’t expect to feel a sense of relief or closure right away, as it will likely take some time before the final results of local, state, and national elections are known. please.

On Election Night in California, County Election Officials Must Start Elections Report results to the Secretary of State Within two hours after voting closes and vote counting begins.

According to the Secretary of State’s office, initial election results are typically cast by mail and early voting. In California, county election officials can begin opening and processing mail-in ballot envelopes up to 29 days before Election Day, but cannot begin counting such results until after all votes have been counted on Election Day. It cannot be shared publicly.

Across the country, state polling places close at various times in the evening (local time).

Closing times for polling places across the US

Indiana and Kentucky were the first states to close their voting booths at 6 p.m. local time.

States closing polling places at 7 p.m. local time include Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Vermont. , Virginia and Wyoming.

Voting ends in Arkansas, Ohio, North Carolina and West Virginia at 7:30 p.m.

Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Washington, and Wisconsin State polling places close at 8 p.m.

New York polling places close at 9 p.m.

North Dakota will close its centers from 7 to 9 p.m. Hours vary by location.

Once voting is complete, election officials have the daunting task of processing and verifying ballots before they begin counting.

Vote counting is slowly underway in California.

California has been designated as the slowest state to tally and count ballots in multiple states. 22 million registered voters, Election officials blame the extra time it takes to verify that ballots are valid.

“California has taken extraordinary steps in recent years to ensure all eligible votes are counted. Slow counting is not a problem, it’s a virtue,” California Common Cause Voting Rights and Redistricting said program manager Russia Chavis Cardenas. “This means that election officials are doing everything in their power to fairly and accurately count all legal ballots.”

County election officials will begin processing and verifying all mail-in ballots no later than 29 days before Election Day to ensure that the ballot envelope is signed and that the signature matches the signature on file. You can confirm that.

If signed by a voter, missing or unmatched The signature is on file, and California law requires election officials to notify the voter and give them an opportunity to resolve the issue.

No matter how long it takes election officials to process and verify ballots in preparation for counting, election results will not be available until the Secretary of State compiles official statewide results during the official election period of 30 days after the election. is not final.

“Even if we don’t know the winner of the election by the time we go to bed, the most important thing is to make sure every voter’s ballot is accurately counted,” Cárdenas added.

Los Angeles County results updates occur in waves

The first official results of the election will be reported by the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk on election night between 8:30 and 8:45 p.m.

Second updated results will be reported between 8:45pm and 9:00pm.

Third round results will be announced from 9pm to 11pm

All three results include mail-in ballots and voter center votes cast before Election Day.

The exact date and time the final update will be shared with the public is unclear, as it is unclear how long it will take county election officials to count ballots filled out at vote centers on Election Day. be. Processing, verification and counting of these specific ballots will begin at 10pm on election night and will continue until all ballots have been counted.

You can monitor Los Angeles County election results from County Election Results. Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk Website.

When will the presidential election be decided?

The race between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican former President Trump is seen as a close race, with the outcome in the hands of voters in seven battleground states: Pennsylvania (19 electoral votes), North Carolina; Georgia (16 votes each), Michigan (15), Arizona (11), Wisconsin (10), and Nevada (6).

Two of those states, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, have laws that prevent election officials from counting mail-in ballots before Election Day, which may explain why it took up to four days to predict a winner in those states in 2020. One is this. Michigan and Nevada had similar regulations. As was the case in 2020, this year authorities were allowed to begin counting mail-in votes far in advance.

With so many electors at stake in Pennsylvania, the presidential election will likely not be decided until the state’s results are known.

In addition, there are two issues that could delay results in any state by close margins on Election Day. One is provisional ballots, which are cast by people in the wrong precinct or have other technical issues, and the other is ballots that voters mail in on time. But it arrived after Tuesday.

As journalist Judd Legum pointed out in a Popular Information newsletter, the lead in each state has narrowed between Trump and Harris as early and mail-in votes are counted and late-arriving votes are added. It can come and go. However, historical patterns of early voting and mail-in voting may not be a good predictor of this year’s results. The Trump campaign publicly downplayed mail-in voting in 2020, giving Democrats an edge in these tallies, but both campaigns are accepting mail-in voting in 2024.

control of parliament

Republicans hold 220 seats in the House of Representatives, Democrats hold 212 seats, and there are three vacant seats.

Analysts say swing seats in California, Virginia, New York, Ohio and Iowa will likely determine which party ultimately controls the chamber, but the situation won’t become clear until Wednesday at the earliest. I’m trying to sleep. To get an early idea of ​​how things are shaping up, check out Virginia’s 2nd and 7th Congressional Districts and New York’s 1st, 4th, 17th, and 22nd Congressional Districts. Look at the results.

Neither Republicans (49 seats) nor Democrats (47 seats) hold a majority in the Senate, but Democrats control the chamber with the help of four independents who caucus.

Analysts have long predicted that Democrats would lose control of the Senate this year, largely because they have to defend so many seats in swing states and right-leaning states. Most observers expect Republicans to win seats in West Virginia and Montana, so control of the Senate will depend on the fate of Democratic incumbents in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Nevada, as well as currently independent It will likely come down to seats in Arizona and Michigan, which are held by political parties. Each is a Democrat. One wild card is Texas, where Republican incumbent Ted Cruz is in a tight race against Democrat Colin Allred.

Of those races, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are expected to have the least chance of a winner on Tuesday, where state laws prohibit the counting of mail-in ballots before Election Day.

According to the Secretary of State, semi-official results, rather than final election results, could lead to media outlets announcing a winner or candidates to concede to their opponents on election night or the next day. It is said that there is.