A Guide to What We’ll Know on Election Night, Hour by Hour

By Nate Cohn in the New Work Times daily letter

Today, the voters will have the final say on the 2026 election.

But as has so often been the case in recent years, we might not learn their verdict on election night.

To see why, check out my colleague Alicia Parlapiano’s great state-by-state guide on when all the polls close and when each state reported its results in 2024.

In particular, it won’t leave you optimistic about getting a quick answer on which party will control the Senate.

For one, none of the core Senate battleground states will be among the first states to close at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Worse, Maine and Alaska won’t even be done counting their vote by midday on Wednesday. If either of those two states figures into the outcome of Senate control — which seems reasonably likely — we may not have a call for a while.

If the House is even modestly close, there’s another problem: Democrats depend on winning dozens of districts in states with extensive mail-in voting, like California. Many of those races won’t be called quickly, even if they’re not especially competitive. The Associated Press, which The New York Times relies on for most of its projections, won’t declare control of the House until one party has won the 218 needed seats. That might take a while.

Although it may be a long time before we know the final outcome, we ought to get an early sense of where the night is headed.

For the complete article go here.

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