I live in France and am planning to watch the results of the US election come out live, (I have CNN and CNBC on my TV and want to follow it state by state.) What time will the results start coming out for the east coast states?
I read something about a restriction on calling the results until after polling has closed on the west coast. Does this apply to the networks calling states or just the whole country?
Each state counts its own vote as soon as the polls close. I think the first state to finish voting is Kentucky or Indiana and that’s 5.30pm local time, if my memory serves me correctly. That’s 11.30pm in the UK and 12.30am in France. Within minutes the networks will call the state for one of the candidates or declare the contest too close to call.
Americans finish voting early, particularly compared to the UK. Most states finish at 7pm or 8pm local time, so by 2am in the UK, 3am in France, most states in the Central Time zone have closed their polls and most votes have been cast. California, the largest state by population, is the only major state in the other time zones. If it’s a landslide, the result may well be apparent by 2.30am French time. If the vote is really close, the result may not be known until the morning rush hour in France or later. Remember that in 2000 everything depended on Florida and that went to the courts and a partial recount.
The US, quite remarkably, doesn’t have federal laws on the conduct of federal elections, leaving it to local state law. There is no ban on counting the votes and declaring the victor before other states have finished voting.
I think what you heard about referred to Canada, which had a general election on Tuesday. There, there is meant to be a news blackout for the western provinces when the eastern provinces start counting. However, it didn’t work properly and so people in Alberta and British Columbia knew that the Conservatives were doing well before they’d finished voting.
July 5th, 2010 at 10:10 am
I think it would be about 8PM or 9PM, I don’t quite know.
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July 5th, 2010 at 10:41 am
Usually, they use early exit polls to determine a probably winner per state, and when they have enough to calculate the needed electoral votes, they call it for one candidate or the other. The actual results(legally speaking), take longer.
So, it depends on how close any states are.
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July 5th, 2010 at 11:21 am
Generally, the various networks will be making predictions all day. But by 9:00 we should have a pretty good idea.
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July 5th, 2010 at 11:35 am
It’s usually late after the polling locations close on the West coast (so after 11 Eastern). The winner won’t be projected until they have at least 270 electoral votes.
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July 5th, 2010 at 12:02 pm
the networks normally will call states but it’s not an official call. it’s only projections and it could take longer than a day to find out the actual winner. it definitely wont be even close to certain until the polls on the west coast have closed.
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July 5th, 2010 at 12:13 pm
The results just in ….. Its…ssssssssssssss… Obama all the way. and there is Palin walking back towards russia and there is MccAin going back to vietnam
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July 5th, 2010 at 12:36 pm
I applies to the country – there is a question that giving results from one part of the country before the other part has finished voting might affect the way people vote, or even whether or not they vote. Thus, ALL the districts must finish voting before any votes are reported.
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July 5th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
There is a restriction on showing polling results until all the polls have closed. That would be 8:00 p.m on the west coast.
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July 5th, 2010 at 1:40 pm
Probably around 8 or 9 pm eastern.
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July 5th, 2010 at 2:06 pm
Each state counts its own vote as soon as the polls close. I think the first state to finish voting is Kentucky or Indiana and that’s 5.30pm local time, if my memory serves me correctly. That’s 11.30pm in the UK and 12.30am in France. Within minutes the networks will call the state for one of the candidates or declare the contest too close to call.
Americans finish voting early, particularly compared to the UK. Most states finish at 7pm or 8pm local time, so by 2am in the UK, 3am in France, most states in the Central Time zone have closed their polls and most votes have been cast. California, the largest state by population, is the only major state in the other time zones. If it’s a landslide, the result may well be apparent by 2.30am French time. If the vote is really close, the result may not be known until the morning rush hour in France or later. Remember that in 2000 everything depended on Florida and that went to the courts and a partial recount.
The US, quite remarkably, doesn’t have federal laws on the conduct of federal elections, leaving it to local state law. There is no ban on counting the votes and declaring the victor before other states have finished voting.
I think what you heard about referred to Canada, which had a general election on Tuesday. There, there is meant to be a news blackout for the western provinces when the eastern provinces start counting. However, it didn’t work properly and so people in Alberta and British Columbia knew that the Conservatives were doing well before they’d finished voting.
References :