WASHINGTON (AP) — Election Day results will come down to seven states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have visited them most often. Together, these states are likely to provide the Electoral College votes needed for the winning candidate to achieve a 270 majority.
It becomes a hopscotch game to keep track of the key times in each of the states, which span four different time zones.
A look at the Election Day timeline for the seven, with all entries in Eastern Standard Time:
Arizona
Polls open at 8 a.m. in Arizona, which led Joe Biden by 0.3% in 2020. He was only the second Democratic presidential candidate in nearly seventy years to do so. The polls close at 9 p.m
Arizona will not release votes until all precincts have reported or an hour after all polls close, whichever comes first.
In 2020, The Associated Press first reported Arizona’s results at 10:02 PM ET on November 3, Election Day, and declared Biden the winner at 2:51 AM ET on November 4.
Georgia
In Georgia, which played a key role in 2020, polling stations opened at 7 a.m. Biden was the first Democrat in a race for the White House to capture the state since Bill Clinton in 1992, beating Trump by less than a quarter of a percentage point, a margin of 11,779 votes.
Since then, Trump’s efforts to overturn those results have been at the heart of a criminal case in Fulton County. The case is on hold while his legal team appeals to have District Attorney Fani Willis removed from the case and the charges dismissed. The Georgia Court of Appeals will hear these arguments after the election.
Polls in Georgia close at 7 p.m
In 2020, the AP first reported Georgia’s results at 7:20 PM ET on November 3 and declared Biden the winner of the state at 7:58 PM ET on November 19, more than two weeks after Election Day.
Michigan
Polls open at 7 a.m. ET in Michigan, one of the “blue wall” states that narrowly went Trump’s way in 2016 after nearly three decades of voting for Democratic candidates. Biden won it back four years later. His margin was about 154,000 votes out of more than 5.5 million votes.
Michigan spans two time zones, but polls close at 8:00 PM ET in most of the state, and at 9:00 PM ET in the rest.
In 2020, the AP first reported Michigan’s results at 8:08 PM ET on November 3 and declared Biden the winner on November 4 at 5:58 PM ET.
Nevada
Polls open at 10 a.m. ET in Nevada, the smallest battleground election prize. But it has one of the best presidential whistleblowing records. The candidate who won Nevada has won the White House in 27 of the past 30 presidential elections.
Polls close at 10pm ET. The state doesn’t release results until the last person in line has voted, so there’s usually a wait between the close of the poll and the first results.
In 2020, the AP first reported Nevada’s results at 11:41 PM ET on November 3 and declared Biden the winner on November 7 at 12:13 PM ET.
North Carolina
Polls open at 6:30 a.m. ET in North Carolina, which has been elected by Democrats only twice in presidential elections since 1968. But the state has remained competitive for both major parties. Trump’s victory in North Carolina in 2020 was his smallest margin of victory in any state, by about 1 percentage point.
Polls close at 7:30 PM ET.
In 2020, the AP first reported results at 7:42 PM ET on November 3 and declared Trump the winner on November 13 at 3:49 PM ET.
Pennsylvania
Polls open at 7 a.m. ET in Pennsylvania, another “blue wall” state. Biden’s 2020 margin in Pennsylvania was about 80,000 votes out of more than 6.9 million votes. This year it is the place where Harris and Trump met for the first time during their only debate in September in Philadelphia.
Polls close at 8pm ET in a state with more electoral votes, 19, than any other battleground.
In 2020, the AP first reported the results at 8:09 PM ET on November 3 and declared Biden the winner on November 7 at 11:25 AM ET.
Wisconsin
Polls open at 8 a.m. ET in Wisconsin, the third “blue wall” state in this group. Wisconsin is no stranger to close elections; the state’s margin of victory was less than 1 percentage point in 2020, 2016, 2004 and 2000.
Polls close at 9:00 PM ET.
In 2020, the AP first reported Wisconsin’s results at 9:07 PM ET on November 3 and declared Biden the winner on November 4 at 2:16 PM ET.
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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://x.com/MegKinnardAP
