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When do the polls close on election day in battleground states?
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When do the polls close on election day in battleground states?

Results on election day will be announced by seven states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Trump visited them the most. Together, these states are likely to provide the Electoral College votes needed for the winning candidate to achieve a 270 majority.

Spanning four different time zones, each of the states will have a hopscotch game to keep up with the important times.

Here’s a look at the election day timeline across seven counties, with all listings in Eastern Standard Time:

Arizona

Polls opened at 8 a.m. EST in Arizona and Joe Biden had 0.3% of the vote in 2020. He was only the second Democratic presidential candidate to do so in nearly 70 years. Voting will end at 21.00

Arizona does not release votes until all precincts have reported or one hour after all polls close, whichever comes first.

The Associated Press first reported Arizona results in 2020 at 10:02 p.m. Eastern on election day, Nov. 3, and declared Biden the winner at 2:51 a.m. on Nov. 4.

Georgia

Polls open at 7 a.m. in Georgia, which played an important role in 2020. Biden became the first Democrat to win the state in the White House since Bill Clinton in 1992, defeating Trump by less than a quarter of a percentage point. 11,779 vote margin.

Trump’s efforts to overturn those results have since been at the center of a criminal case in Fulton County. The case is on hold as the legal team continues its pretrial objection to have District Attorney Fani Willis removed from the case and the indictment dismissed. The Georgia Court of Appeals will hear those arguments after the election.

Polls close at 19:00 in Georgia

The AP first reported Georgia results in 2020 on Nov. 3 at 7:20 p.m. Eastern time and declared Biden the winner of the state at 7:58 p.m. on Nov. 19, more than two weeks after election day.

Michigan

Polls open at 7 a.m. Eastern time in Michigan, one of the “blue wall” states that narrowly went to Trump in 2016 after nearly 30 years of voting for Democratic candidates. Biden won the award back four years later. His margin was about 154,000 votes out of more than 5.5 million votes.

Michigan covers two time zones, but polls close at 8pm EST in most of the state, and the rest close at 9pm EST.

In 2020, the AP first reported Michigan results on Nov. 3 at 8:08 p.m. EST and declared Biden the winner on Nov. 4 at 5:58 p.m.

Nevada

Polls open at 10 a.m. EST in Nevada, the battlegrounds’ smallest electoral vote prize. But he has one of the best track records as a presidential frontrunner. The candidate who wins Nevada has also won the White House in 27 of the last 30 presidential elections.

Polls close at 10pm Eastern time. The state doesn’t release results until the last person in line has voted, so there’s often a wait between the poll closing and the first results.

In 2020, the AP first reported Nevada results on Nov. 3 at 11:41 p.m. Eastern time and declared Biden the winner on Nov. 7 at 12:13 p.m.

North Carolina

Polls open at 6:30 a.m. Eastern time in North Carolina, where Democrats have participated in presidential elections only twice since 1968. But the state remains competitive for both major parties. Trump’s nearly 1 percentage point victory in North Carolina in 2020 was the smallest winning margin of any state.

Voting ends at 19.30

In 2020, the AP first reported results on Nov. 3 at 7:42 p.m. Eastern time and declared Trump the winner on Nov. 13 at 3:49 p.m.

Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania, another “blue wall” state, polls open at 7 a.m. EST. Biden’s 2020 margin in Pennsylvania was about 80,000 votes out of more than 6.9 million votes cast. This year, that’s where Harris and Trump met for the first time at their only debate in Philadelphia in September.

Polls close at 8 p.m. in the state that received more electoral votes (19) than any other battleground state in the East.

In 2020, the AP first reported results on Nov. 3 at 8:09 p.m. and declared Biden the winner on Nov. 7 at 11:25 a.m. EST.

Wisconsin

In Wisconsin, the third “blue wall” state of this group, polls open at 8 a.m. Wisconsin is no stranger to election shutdowns; The margin of victory in the state was less than 1 percentage point in 2020, 2016, 2004 and 2000.

Polls close at 9pm EST.

The AP first reported Wisconsin results in 2020 on Nov. 3 at 9:07 p.m., and declared Biden the winner on Nov. 4 at 2:16 p.m. Eastern time.

Kinnard writes for the Associated Press.