Some races are likely to be called on Tuesday night, while in other, tighter contests it could take multiple days—if not longer—to determine a winner. It all boils down to the states, which the U.S. Constitution empowers to establish the times, places, and manners of holding elections and counting ballots.
“There are all these differences, both in process and deadlines, and geography, and who the voters are, and who the candidates are, that make a difference in what this looks like,” Mitchell Brown, a professor of political science at Auburn University and the author of “How We Vote: Innovations in American Elections,” tells TIME.
Mitchell says that it could take up to 30 days before all the states certify their results. She stresses that official midterm results released by the states themselves are different from projections from media outlets, which will call races sooner.
Here’s what to know about how the midterm votes will be tabulated, and when we are likely to know the results.
Here is when the latest polls close in each of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., in Eastern Standard Time.
7:30 p.m. EST: Ohio and West Virginia.
8 p.m. EST: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C.
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9 p.m. EST: Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
11 p.m. EST: California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington state.
1 a.m. EST: Alaska
How are ballots counted?
Depending on the state, ballots are either counted right at voting locations, or transported back to county counting facilities. Mann says these facilities are like warehouses containing machines that can quickly and accurately count votes.
Provisional ballots allow people to vote who fail to meet certain eligibility requirements that can later be verified. If, for example, someone arrives at a polling site and does not have their ID, they may be able to vote through a provisional ballot that can then be counted if and when they have verified their identity.
Fourteen states and Washington D.C. also allow ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they are received during a set post-election window, which can also add delays to final vote counts.
When it comes to the media calling races, projections may take longer to come in cases when races are tight, and the winner does not become clear until nearly all the votes are counted.
In terms of the actual process of states counting votes, meanwhile, differences in speed can boil down to physical factors, such as the distance ballots must be transported before being counted. In states such as Alaska, for instance, vast and rural territories create delays for counting ballots. “There are sometimes ballots being flown back to Anchorage in order to be processed,” says Orey. They add that some states may also simply have more infrastructure to count ballots, including more machines, employees, and counting locations.
“If no candidate has a majority on that first count, then they drop the candidate with the lowest number of votes, and they go through it again,” Mann explains.
Other states, like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, prohibit preparing mailed ballots for scanning until Election Day.
Fraud is extremely rare
The process of confirming election results taking days or weeks, Mitchell says, is completely standard, and is not an indication of election fraud, which research and state audits have consistently shown to be extraordinarily rare.
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“[Fraud] is extremely rare … Elections are more secure, more accurate than they have ever been,” adds Mann. “Election officials and your friends and neighbors who are out working the polls are working incredibly hard. They are very dedicated to make sure the election is safe, secure, accurate.”
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