The midterm election polls may be closing at 7 p.m. EST in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, but because the state of Florida spans two time zones, we will have to wait another hour for official election results to start pouring in.
So, yes -- Florida’s polls close at 7 local time, according to the Washington Post. That means that they’re open an hour later in parts of the panhandle on Central time.
Florida’s ballot features a close Senate contest between incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and Republican Gov. Rick Scott, as well as a tight governor’s race between GOP Rep. Ron DeSantis and Democrat Andrew Gillum, the mayor of Tallahassee.
Across The Country
The first polls to close on Nov. 6 are in Kentucky and Indiana, where locations shut down at 6 p.m. local time, according to Vox, which has a full list of states’ poll closing times.
But poll closing times across the U.S. vary nearly as much as voters’ political views, with New York and Iowa polls open till 9 p.m. local time.
California voting locations close at 8 p.m. local time, but that’s 11 p.m. for East Coast election watchers.
Polls close at 7 p.m. Eastern time in much of Georgia, where Democrat Stacey Abrams is running to be the country’s first black female governor against Brian Kemp, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state. Atlanta voting sites shut down at 8 p.m., Vox reports.
Once polls close, you will be able to tune into WIOD live for election results as they come in. Live polling coverage starts at 6 p.m. with Ryan Gorman. Listen live here:
Similarly, the New York Times, Washington Post and Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight will track results as they come in, as will cable news networks CNN, Fox and MSNBC.