What Time Do Polls Close on Election Day? 7 P.M. in Orlando — and Here's How the Winners Get Called After That
Florida polls close at 7 p.m. local time on Tuesday — 7 p.m. Eastern in Orlando, 8 p.m. Eastern in the Panhandle — and anyone in line at 7 still votes. The first national calls can come as early as 6 p.m. Eastern from Indiana and Kentucky, and the Associated Press will have more than 4,000 reporters gathering the count that every network's call rests on.
The Election Eve question has two halves: when voting stops, and when anyone can say who won. In Florida, the Division of Elections' rule is uniform — polls are open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. local time, and any voter waiting in line at 7 p.m. still gets to cast a ballot. Because Florida spans two time zones, that means most of the state, Orlando included, closes at 7 p.m. Eastern, while the Panhandle's polls close at 8 p.m. Eastern — which is 7 p.m. their local, Central, time. Statewide results cannot be fully read until that second close, an hour after Orlando's.
Nationally, the call-making starts earlier. Reuters' guide to how news organizations will call the midterms reports that the first calls can come soon after polls begin closing — Indiana and Kentucky at 6 p.m. Eastern, then Georgia, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia at 7 p.m. Most networks and outlets rest their calls on two vote-count providers, the Associated Press or Decision Desk HQ. The AP, which has counted votes in every American election since 1848, says it will deploy more than 4,000 reporters at county election offices and polling locations on Tuesday, and it calls a race only when the trailing candidate cannot catch up — a judgment built from the reported vote plus an estimate of how many ballots remain and where they are coming from.
Calls are decisions, not results, and the system has reversed itself before: in 2018 the AP retracted a California House call after the count shifted, and Decision Desk HQ withdrew a projection in Seattle's 2025 mayoral race. For Orlando voters, the practical sequence on Tuesday night is simple — vote by 7 p.m. Eastern at your assigned precinct (or be in line by 7), expect Florida's own picture to sharpen only after the Panhandle closes at 8 p.m. Eastern, and treat any call before the count supports it as a projection that its maker can take back. The certified result is the one county canvassing boards and the state produce in the days after.
