SPOKANE, Wash. — The flurry of political ads, signs and debates will soon come to an end as Election Day closes in.
Several key races in Washington state, along with local county races, will all declare final winners in the coming days.
Here's when voting results will drop in Washington state and nationwide.
In Washington, polls close at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 5. The initial round of results will drop around 8:15 p.m. on Tuesday. The first batch includes mostly votes that were submitted early either by mail or ballot drop box.
Results will continue to be updated every day between Nov. 5 and Nov. 27. These results may shift narrow races or widen gaps between opposing candidates.
The General Election results will be certified in Washington state by Thursday, Dec. 5.
Nationally, preliminary results for the Presidential Election will drop just after 8 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. However, the official winner of the presidential race may not be known until a later time. In recent years, it has taken longer to know for sure which candidate has won enough electoral votes to win the White House.
The Associated Press often announces results that are used by major news networks to project and declare winners.
In the 2020 presidential election, AP declared Joe Biden the winner four days after Election Day – at 11:26 a.m. ET on Saturday, Nov. 7.
In 2016, AP called the race for Donald Trump at 2:29 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday, November 9, after determining that Trump had won Wisconsin, thereby exceeding the necessary 270 electoral votes.
