What to expect on election night in Georgia when polls close

On Election Day, polls will open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. when Georgians across the state will cast their ballots, but don’t look for winners and losers right away.

Early unofficial results must be in about an hour after polls close. By the end of the night, outcomes for most races will be known, but some races may be too close to call.

Early in-person votes and absentee ballots processed during early voting will be among the first ballots to be counted. Typically, Democrats vote absentee in greater numbers.

This year fewer people are voting absentee compared with 2022. Still, the state has shattered early voting records with a more diverse electorate and stronger turnout in left-leaning jurisdictions.

Republicans typically rely more on Election Day, when their voters could help close the early voting turnout gap.

Mirages

Beware of “mirages,” which occur when initial returns show one candidate with a sizable lead early on as results come in. Those early results may not reflect what the final tally will show. In statewide races, some counties may be faster to report results than others.

Slow returns and evaporating leads feed suspicions of potential wrongdoing in the election. However, such trends are common on election night.

There could be disruptions that require some polling locations across the state to stay open later than 7 p.m.

In the May primaries, some skeptics online seized on an election night reporting delay after Fulton County announced it would not begin reporting results until 11 p.m., delaying results in the county by hours when compared with most counties. They took to social media to question the Democratic stronghold’s voting procedures.

But the delay came after a judge extended voting after police put a polling location on an hourslong “soft lockdown” following reports of a suspicious person and possible gunshots at a nearby park.

Fulton, the state’s most populous county, has been the epicenter for election conspiracies since the 2020 election. The Trump administration seized hundreds of boxes of the county’s 2020 election records as part of a criminal investigation early this year, though no evidence of wrongdoing has been unveiled.

While it may be clear who won an election, the results cannot be officially finalized until all ballots are counted. That process takes a few days to finish in every election.

Certification, recounts and audits

Under Georgia law, after the election, county election boards must certify results no later than 5 p.m. on the Monday after the election. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger will have until Nov. 20 to certify results statewide.