Election day is finally here, but don’t expect to enjoy a sense of relief and finality anytime soon because it will likely take some time to get the final results of the local, state and national elections.

On election night in California, county elections officials must begin reporting results to the Secretary of State within two hours after the polls close and they begin tallying votes.

According to the Secretary of State, the first election results are typically vote-by-mail ballots and early voting ballots. In California, county elections officials may begin opening and processing vote-by-mail ballot envelopes up to 29 days before election day but such results cannot be tallied or shared with the public until all polls close on election day.

Across the nation, state polling centers close at different times of the evening (local time).

What times polling centers close across the U.S.

Indiana and Kentucky are the first to close its polling centers doors at 6 p.m. local time.

States that close their polling centers 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, Vermont, Virginia and Wyoming.

In Arkansas, Ohio, North Carolina and West Virgina the polls close at 7:30 p.m.

In 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 the polling centers close at 8 p.m.

New York’s polling centers close at 9 p.m.

North Dakota closes its centers between 7 and 9 p.m.; the time depends on the location.

Once the polls close, elections officials have the daunting task of processing and verifying ballots before they begin the tally.

Slowly counting ballots in California

California has the designation of being the slowest state to count and tally the ballots of its more than 22 million registered voters, which election officials attribute to the extra time it takes to ensure ballots are valid.

“California has taken extraordinary steps in recent years to make sure we go the extra mile to count every eligible vote. A slow count isn’t a problem, it’s a virtue,” Russia Chavis Cardenas, voting rights and redistricting program manager for California Common Cause. “It means elections officials are doing everything they can to count every legitimate ballot fairly and accurately.”

Up to 29 days before election day, county elections officials can begin processing and verifying all vote-by-mail ballots to ensure the ballot envelopes are signed and the signatures match the signatures on file.

If a voter’s signature is missing or does not match the signature on file, California law requires elections officials to notify that voter and give them an opportunity to fix the problem.

No matter how long it takes election workers to process and verify ballots in preparation for tallying, the election results are not final until the Secretary of State compiles the official statewide results during the official canvass period in the 30 days after the election.

“Even though we may not know the election winners when we go to bed, what matters most is making sure every eligible voter’s ballot is counted accurately,” added Cardenas.

Los Angeles County result updates come in waves

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

The second updated results will be reported between 8:45 and 9 p.m.

The third result will be announced between 9 and 11 p.m.

All three results include vote-by-mail ballots and voter center ballots cast before election day.

There isn’t an exact date or time for sharing the final update with the public because it is uncertain how long it will take the county elections office to count the ballots filled out at vote centers on election day. Processing, verifying and counting those particular ballots starts at 10 p.m. on election night and continues until all ballots are counted.

You can keep tabs on the Los Angeles County election results from the county’s Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s website.

When will the presidential race be decided?

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

Two of those states — Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — have laws that bar election officials from counting mail-in ballots before election day, which is one reason it took up to four days to project a winner there in 2020. Michigan and Nevada had similar restraints in 2020, but this year officials were allowed to start counting mail-in ballots well ahead of time.

So many electoral votes are at stake in Pennsylvania, it seems likely that the presidential race won’t be decided until the results in that state are clear.

Beyond that, two issues could delay results in any state with razor-thin margins on election day: provisional ballots — that is, ballots cast by people at the wrong precinct or with other technical issues — and ballots that were mailed on time by the voter but arrived after Tuesday.

As journalist Judd Legum noted in his Popular Information newsletter, the lead in each state could go back and forth between Trump and Harris, as early and mail-in ballots are counted and as late-arriving votes are added to the mix. Past patterns in early and mail-in voting may not be a good predictor of this year’s outcome, however: The Trump campaign publicly disparaged mail-in voting in 2020, so Democrats dominated in those tallies, but both sides have embraced it in 2024.

Control of Congress

In the House, Republicans hold 220 seats and Democrats 212, with three seats vacant.

Analysts say swing seats in California, Virginia, New York, Ohio and Iowa will probably determine which party ends up controlling the chamber, but the picture isn’t likely to be clear until Wednesday at the earliest. For an early hint of how things are going, watch the results from Virginia’s 2nd and 7th districts and New York’s 1st, 4th, 17th and 22nd districts.

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

Analysts have long predicted that Democrats would lose control of the Senate, mainly because they have to defend so many seats this year in swing or right-leaning states. Most observers expect Republicans to pick up seats in West Virginia and Montana, so control of the Senate will come down to the fates of Democratic incumbents in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Nevada, along with seats in Arizona and Michigan currently held by an independent and a Democrat, respectively. One wild card is Texas, where Republican incumbent Ted Cruz is in a tight battle with Democrat Colin Allred.

Of those races, the ones least likely to see winners projected Tuesday are Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, given state laws that prevent them from counting mail-in ballots before election day.

Media outlets can announce a victor or candidates may concede to their opponent on election night or in the days following based on semi-official results and not the final election results, according to the Secretary of State.