With millions of voters expected to show up to the polls today, the world will be anxiously watching for the election results to start pouring in on Tuesday night.

Here is what you need to know about the 2024 presidential election results.

When do the polls close?

Kentucky (eight electoral votes) will be the first state to close its polls at 6 p.m. Eastern.

For most of the eastern half of the country, voting polls will close between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m., while polls on the West Coast will close at 11 p.m. Eastern.

The last states to close will be Hawaii (four electoral votes) and Alaska (three electoral votes) which will close their polls at midnight and 1 a.m. respectively.

When will the 2024 Election Day results be announced?

Election Day results have historically often been announced just hours after the polls close. However, recent elections have required longer waiting periods before all the votes can be tallied, and a winner can be declared.

One reason for this is the prevalence of mail-in absentee voting. Fourteen states legally require that mail-in ballots be counted only after polls close on Election Day.

The first election results of the night will likely begin being called after 7 p.m. Eastern. Results for some of the critical swing states such as Pennsylvania (19 electoral votes) will likely not be called till much later.

In 2020, news outlets called the election in President Joe Biden’s favor four days after Election Day. In 2016, the race was called in Trump’s favor at 3 a.m. the day after Election Day.

The closer the election, the longer it will take to know the result. Barring an unexpected landslide victory by either candidate, the winner of the 2024 presidential election may not be known until a day or several days after Election Day.

Election results may also be further delayed by legal challenges by either former President Donald Trump or Vice-president Kamala Harris.

What are the key states to watch on Election Day?

With 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency, the 2024 presidential election is expected to be extremely close.

There are seven states – Pennsylvania, Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada – which are considered close swing states. Experts will be closely watching these states as they will likely determine who the next president will be.

Here is when polls will close in each of the swing states.

7:00 p.m. Eastern – Georgia (16 electoral votes) 

7:30 p.m. Eastern – North Carolina (16 electoral votes) 

8:00 p.m. Eastern – Pennsylvania (except for Cambria County which will close at 10 p.m. Eastern due to electronic voting system software issues) 

9:00 p.m. Eastern – Michigan (15 electoral votes), Arizona (11 electoral votes) and Wisconsin (10 electoral votes) 

10:00 p.m. Eastern – Nevada (six electoral votes) 

How do I watch the election live?

You can stream Fox News election coverage live online. You can also keep track of the election results on Fox News Digital’s live election blog.

Tens of millions of Americans are headed to the polls across the country Tuesday, but polling locations will not remain open forever.

Here are the poll closing times for every state in the country.

6 PM EST

Partial poll closure. Some polling locations will remain open.

Partial poll closure. Some polling locations will remain open.

7 PM EST

Partial poll closure. Some polling locations will remain open.

Partial poll closure. Some polling locations will remain open.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Partial poll closure. Some polling locations will remain open.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

7:30 PM EST

More partial closures.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

8 PM EST

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Partial poll closure. Some polling locations will remain open.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Partial poll closure. Some polling locations will remain open.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Partial poll closure. Some polling locations will remain open.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Partial poll closure. Some polling locations will remain open.

Polls will fully close.

Partial poll closure. Some polling locations will remain open.

Polls will fully close.

8:30 PM EST

Polls will fully close.

9 PM EST

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

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Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

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Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

10 PM EST:

Partial poll closure. Some polling locations will remain open.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Partial poll closure. Some polling locations will remain open.

Polls will fully close.

11 PM EST:

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

Polls will fully close.

12 AM EST:

Partial poll closure. Some polling locations will remain open.

Polls will fully close.

1 AM EST:

Polls will fully close.

Sen. J.D. Vance, former President Donald Trump’s 2024 running mate, referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as ‘trash’ during a speech on the eve of Election Day.

‘The citizens of this country are not garbage for wanting to be able to afford groceries and a nice place to live. But in two days we are gonna take out the trash in Washington D.C., and the trash’s name is Kamala Harris,’ Vance declared.

In a post on X, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., opined, ‘Not too sure that Republicans going from calling Puerto Ricans garbage to calling a woman garbage is the whiz-bang political chess move they think it is.’

Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe faced criticism after cracking a joke in which he referred to Puerto Rico as ‘a floating island of garbage.’ He made the joke while speaking at Trump’s rally at Madison Square Garden.

President Joe Biden later sparked controversy when he said, ‘The only garbage I see floatin’ out there is his supporters.’

Biden has suggested that he was characterizing Hinchcliffe’s comments as garbage.

‘Earlier today I referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporters at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage—which is the only word I can think of to describe it,’ Biden said in a post on X. ‘His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable. That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation.’

Harris said that Biden had ‘clarified his comments,’ and that she opposes ‘any criticism of people based on who they vote for.’

Vance has served in the Senate since 2023.

: Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., is firing a warning shot to agencies and departments within the federal government about a potential transition to a future Trump administration – telling the Democratic administration that it needs to follow federal requirements.

Hagerty has written to all federal agencies, in letters obtained by Fox News Digital, warning of applicable provisions in laws regarding appropriations that limit departments’ ability to transfer funds or change programs during the transition period.

‘As we move into a presidential transition period, I write today to remind you of your statutory transfer-of-funds authority and change-of-program requirements under the Further Consolidated Appropriations and Extensions Act 2024…which will continue to apply with the same force during the transition,’ he wrote.

‘Compliance with these requirements must be a priority for the outgoing administration, given the criminal and administrative consequences of failing to do so,’ he said.

He argues that the law limits moving funds, altering programs and prohibits employees from obligating federal dollars – with potential criminal sanctions or firing. 

‘As the Biden administration works to transfer the power and authorities of the President of the United States and the Executive Branch in a timely, transparent, and lawful manner, adherence to these legal obligations is imperative,’ he wrote.

The letter comes ahead of what could become a fraught transition period should former President Donald Trump be elected to the White House for a second time. 

The Trump transition team clashed with the Obama administration in 2016 over assessments that Russia meddled in the election. In 2020, Trump refused to accept the results of the election and was indicted last year on felony charges for working to overturn the results of the election.

President Biden made headlines in August when he said he was not confident about a peaceful transfer of power if Vice President Kamala Harris wins.

‘If Trump loses, I’m not confident at all,’ he said in an interview.

‘He means what he says. We don’t take him seriously. He means it,’ he said.

The administration began offering resources to both Trump and Harris in August ahead of a potential transition, which involves the vetting and selection of more than 4,000 appointees and depends of infrastructure built during the period before the election. The Associated Press reported that a federal transition coordination council has been holding regular meetings to prepare to hand over the reins in January 2025.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Trump ally and British parliament member Nigel Farage says Vice President Kamala Harris should pardon the former president if he loses in order to ‘dampen down potential tensions’ following Election Day. 

Farage, the leader of the Reform UK party, made the remark this week in an interview with The Telegraph, during which he declared that ‘I still think he is going to win.’ 

‘If she gets in on Tuesday I hope she pardons him. She could look magnanimous and it would dampen down potential tensions,’ Farage said.  

In September, Judge Juan Merchan decided to postpone Trump’s sentencing in New York v. Trump until after the presidential election. Trump had been found guilty in an unprecedented criminal trial on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. 

Farage also told The Telegraph that he has ‘never gone along with the stolen election narrative’ surrounding the 2020 presidential race. 

‘The whole point of voting is we don’t need to fight,’ he said. ‘It is what we fought two world wars for. We settle our differences with the ballot box.’ 

Farage added that if Trump loses to Harris and ‘If it was clear and decisive then maybe it’s time [for Trump] to go and play golf at Turnberry,’ referencing Trump’s course in Scotland. 

At a rally in Reading, Pa., on the eve of Election Day, Trump described Farage – who was in attendance – as ‘the big winner of the last election in the U.K.’ 

‘He’s a little bit of a rebel, but that’s good, you know? That’s good. Don’t change. Nigel,’ Trump added. 

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report. 

There are 11 gubernatorial races down for decision on Election Day, with four being competitive, according to the Fox News Power Rankings.

This year, up to 150 million Americans are expected to cast ballots in the U.S. presidential election, while levers will also be pulled for gubernatorial races and other down-ballot races.

1. Neck and neck in New Hampshire

New Hampshire is the most difficult governor’s race to call and is considered a toss-up, as former Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte takes on Democrat Joyce Craig, who served three two-year terms as mayor of Manchester, New Hampshire’s largest city.

They are bidding to replace GOP Gov. Chris Sununu, a popular governor with a large national profile, who decided not to seek re-election after winning four straight two-year terms as the Granite State governor. Ayotte received Sununu’s endorsement this summer.

Despite having a Republican governor, New Hampshire has voted for the Democratic candidate in every presidential election since 2004.

Ayotte is also a former state attorney general who narrowly lost her Senate re-election in 2016 after breaking with former President Donald Trump following the release of the infamous ‘Access Hollywood’ video. As she ran for her party’s nomination for governor, Ayotte endorsed Trump this year.

Morse, facing an uphill challenge against the higher polling and better funded Ayotte, repeatedly questioned her conservative record as a senator and her support for Trump.

The pair have clashed on local issues including taxes, the opioid crisis and housing homelessness, as well as abortion. New Hampshire law allows abortions up to the 24th week of a pregnancy.

Craig has accused Ayotte of voting against abortion rights and then changing her position to run for governor, according to WBUR. 

Ayotte voted to de-fund Planned Parenthood as a senator and says she will support the state’s right to decide the issue following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.

‘I will fight with everything I have to defend New Hampshire’s right to decide this issue and protect our law,’ Ayotte said.

2. Keep an eye on Indiana

In Indiana, Republican gubernatorial candidate Sen. Mike Braun should have been able to cruise to victory against any Democratic opponent. However, Braun’s hardline position on abortion has given Democrat Jennifer McCormick an opening. The state enacted a near total ban on abortion two years ago, which McCormick argues is too extreme. 

Braun maintains that Indiana should be a ‘right-to-life state. He was endorsed by former President Trump before May’s GOP primary, who took the Hoosier state by large margins in 2016 and 2020.

Braun is aiming to extend the GOP’s 20-year hold on Indiana’s governor’s office by defeating McCormick, a former Republican who split with the party after serving as the state’s schools superintendent.

The GOP has controlled Indiana’s governor’s office since Mitch Daniels defeated the late Gov. Joe Kernan in 2004. Additionally, Democrats have not won a statewide office in Indiana since 2012.

There are also unusual partisan dynamics at play. The GOP’s candidate for lieutenant governor could impact support for the Republican ticket among moderates, and there is a Libertarian on the ballot.

Indiana’s governor race has moved from Solid R to Likely R.

3. North Carolina could see its first Black governor

In the key swing state of North Carolina, current Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson faces an uphill battle to defeat Democratic state Attorney General Josh Stein in the battle to replace Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who is term-limited and not allowed to run for re-election.

The key talking point in the race involves allegations that Robinson made controversial comments on a porn website more than a decade ago.

Robinson has denied saying those words, and Republicans began to distance themselves from the candidate afterward, while at least four top staffers resigned in the wake of the report. Former President Trump endorsed Robinson before the March primary but also began distancing himself.

Stein has attacked Robinson for his stance on abortion. Since Reconstruction ended in the 1890s, North Carolina has only elected three Republican governors.

If elected, Robinson would be North Carolina’s first Black governor.

The race is Likely D.

4. Trump foe likely to take Washington 

Longtime Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson is hoping to keep the governor’s mansion in Democratic hands, while former Rep. Dave Reichert is trying to become the state’s first GOP governor in 40 years. The Evergreen State has voted Democrat in every presidential election since 1988.

Reichert, who served as King County Sheriff for 33 years, is best known for his role in capturing the Green River Killer, a notorious serial killer. His tenure as sheriff and his subsequent service in Congress have been central to his campaign messaging, positioning him as a tough on crime public safety candidate. 

For his part, Ferguson’s campaign has been marked by his sharp criticism of Reichert on hot button issues such as abortion, as Ferguson has attacked the former Republican congressman for his previous support for a nationwide abortion ban as out of touch with Washington’s values. 

Ferguson, has been the state’s attorney general since 2013. He came to national prominence by repeatedly suing the Trump administration, including bringing the lawsuit that blocked Trump’s initial travel ban on citizens of several majority Muslim nations.

Ferguson’s endorsements include prominent state leaders like U.S. Senate Pro Tempore Patty Murray and Gov. Jay Inslee.

Reichert faced an uphill battle in a state considered a Democratic stronghold.

Remaining races

Of the remaining gubernatorial races, Delaware is considered Solid D, while Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Utah, Vermont and West Virginia are Solid R.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser, Matthew Richter and Jamie Joseph, as well as The Associated Press, contributed to this report. 

The Republican Party is determined not to be outmanned in the courts regarding the 2024 elections, with GOP leaders leaning heavily on a new, litigation-focused ‘election integrity’ effort launched earlier this year in a bid to avoid many of the same pitfalls as 2020.

The two-pronged effort seeks to improve the GOP ground game across the country, both by recruiting and training poll observers and by adding more transparency to the voting process, senior Republican Party officials told Fox News Digital in an interview.

To date, they have recruited some 230,000 volunteers across the country, RNC officials said, including 5,000 lawyers concentrated primarily in the battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

On the eve of Election Day, it is the lawyers whose talents could be especially useful in the days and weeks to come. 

That is because the second half of the election integrity push focuses on litigation. Some of the lawsuits are aimed at ensuring ‘poll worker parity’ and access for Republican observers at many election sites across the country, senior party officials told Fox News Digital.

However, they have also filed dozens of lawsuits aimed at cracking down on voter identification laws, tightening citizenship verification standards and adding new requirements for mail-in ballots and provisional ballots accepted by various states. 

The Republican Party has been especially aggressive in filing these pre-election lawsuits, which officials describe as helping ‘set the rules of the road in key swing states.’

As of this writing, party officials said they have filed more than 130 lawsuits—the vast majority of the roughly 200 election-related lawsuits in the 2024 election.

While the flurry of GOP-led lawsuits have dominated headlines in the final race to Election Day—primarily in the seven swing states considered to hold outsize importance in determining the next president— Republican Party officials pointed to courtroom victories won as early as this summer as some of their biggest achievements.

One example was the RNC’s successful lawsuit against the city of Detroit in August. 

The RNC had sued to add more Republican election inspectors to the city’s 300-plus voting precincts, citing a ‘7.5-to-one’ ratio of Democrat inspectors to Republican inspectors. Republicans successfully argued that the disparity ran afoul of state law, which requires ‘an equal number, as nearly as possible’ of election officials from both major political parties. More Republican observers were added as a result. 

A more recent win occurred last week in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, where a judge sided with the GOP’s request to extend early voting deadlines from Tuesday, Nov. 5, to Friday, Nov. 8.

Republican officials have touted success in achieving more transparency in state elections. 

‘We really view this as making America’s elections run in a transparent and trustworthy way. And that’s a net positive for everyone in this country, regardless of Republican or Democrat [party affiliation],’ a senior RNC official told Fox News Digital in an interview.

Still, on the eve of Election Day, it remains to be seen whether these efforts will have accomplished their stated goal of establishing more trust in U.S. elections.

That is because the concept of ‘election security’ not only requires certain safeguards to be placed around the voter registration and ballot-casting process, but also that the voters themselves then trust the results of the vote as legitimate.

A fresh AP-NORC poll found that Democrats are far more likely than their Republican counterparts to express confidence in the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. 

The poll found that while 71% of registered Democratic voters said they have ‘a great deal’ of confidence in the national election outcome, just one-third of their Republican counterparts, or 24%, reported the same. 

Looking ahead

While some of these lawsuits could be used by the RNC as a pretext to challenge the outcome of certain states after Election Day, legal experts said it is unclear what impact any of these legal challenges could have in contesting the results — even if the outcome in certain states is just as close as expected in a neck-and-neck election. 

Courts are highly disinclined to take up cases after Election Day, Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor for the Southern District of New York, told Fox News in an interview. 

‘We want to have the game be fair, in the sense that there’s bright lines way before you ever get to Election Day,’ McCarthy said. ‘So everybody has their eyes open about what the rules are.’

‘It’s really hard to get a court to involve itself after an election has taken place and where they’re in a position of potentially changing the outcome of the election,’ he added.

That is especially true of the nation’s top court, Trey Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor and member of Congress, told Fox News Digital in an interview.

‘I think the Supreme Court is very wary of being drawn into overtly political fights,’ he said. 

Officials in battleground states say lawyers are ready on this Election Day to pursue legal action against any counties who try to disrupt or delay the vote certification process. 

The warnings come after a few counties in Arizona, Pennsylvania and New Mexico initially did not certify results or did so with incomplete tallies following the 2022 midterm elections, according to Politico. 

‘If you don’t certify an election at the county level, or certify a canvas, you’re going to get indicted,’ Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes told Politico. ‘We’ve sent, on top of that, some what I would call sternly-worded letters out to folks to let them know.’ 

Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson also said that lawyers have prepared draft legal filings in order to sue any county that tries to avoid certifying this year’s results. 

‘We’ve got great attorneys that we’re working with at the attorney general’s office, who are prepared as well, who were there in 2020 and ready to go,’ Benson told Politico. ‘It’s more about just making sure we’re able to rapidly respond and are prepared to ensure that the law is followed.’ 

During the last presidential election, former President Trump urged two members of Michigan’s Wayne County Board of Canvassers not to certify the results, according to a report from The Detroit News. 

In September, during an event hosted by the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation & Research, Gabriel Sterling, the chief operating officer for the Georgia secretary of state’s office, said, ‘There are those who think they can magically hold up everything by one county… That is not going to happen, and the courts won’t allow for that,’ according to Politico. 

‘With the system we have in place, with the lawyers we have in place, we have game-planned a lot of this out,’ he reportedly added. 

State election officials tell Politico that local officials are duty-bound to certify results and the task is not optional. 

Voters in 10 U.S. states will decide on major ballot initiatives this year that either expand or restrict abortion access for women, a highly polarizing issue but one that some advocacy groups do not believe will affect turnout quite as much as some had expected. 

It’s unclear to what extent this could impact Vice President Harris, who has focused heavily on abortion access and reproductive rights in her bid for the presidency.

In the final race to Election Day, some doubt the issue has lasting power to turn out voters to the same degree it did during the 2022 midterm elections, held just months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

‘I think Democrats are dramatically overestimating the power of abortion,’ Shawn Carney, president of the pro-life nonprofit group ’40 Days for Life,’ told Fox News in an interview. 

The nonprofit has a grassroots presence in all 50 states and has canvassed heavily in the 10 states that will vote directly on abortion-related measures this year: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New York, Nevada and South Dakota.

The majority of these ballot measures seek to amend efforts passed in Republican-led states, whose leaders moved to restrict abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision on Roe.

Notable policies will be on the books in Missouri, where voters will have the option to reverse the state’s near-total ban, and Arizona, where voters can amend the state constitution to allow abortions through the 24-week mark.

The most populous state deciding on abortion measures is Florida, home to more than 13 million registered voters.

Voters there will decide whether to lift an existing law that bans abortions after six weeks and instead extend it to the point of fetal viability between 23 and 24 weeks.

‘I think we have the best chance to win in Florida,’ Carney said, citing the popularity in the state of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican and staunch advocate of pro-life issues.

‘We have a great presence in Florida. We have great ‘40 Days’ campaigns throughout that great state.’

Harris and other Democrats have worked to highlight the new risks to abortion access women face. But it’s not clear what impact this will have on turnout in a presidential election dominated by economic issues and immigration.

Former first lady Michelle Obama dedicated most of her stump speech at a Harris rally last week in Kalamazoo, Mich., to outlining the many ways women could see their reproductive rights diminished further.

‘Your niece could be the one miscarrying in her bathtub after the hospital turned her away,’ Obama told the audience. ‘Your daughter could be the one terrified to call the doctor if she’s bleeding during an unexpected pregnancy.’

Importantly, voters in states where abortion is on the ballot will vote on it independently, meaning it is ‘decoupled’ from their presidential vote and votes for down-ballot leaders. This means that some staunch pro-choice supporters could theoretically vote for Trump and Republicans in their states while also voting to support pro-life procedures. 

This ‘decoupling’ effort would indeed reflect public opinion that has shifted to support abortion. A Fox News poll conducted this year found that a record-high number of voters now say they support legalizing abortion in some form, including two-thirds who said they supported a nationwide law that would guarantee abortion access for women.

Fifty-nine percent said they believe abortion should be legal in ‘all or most cases,’ up from the previous high of 57% in September 2022. 

But how much the issue of abortion will drive voter turnout this year – for those who are either for or against the new ballot measure – is unclear. 

National polls have seen abortion ranked consistently by voters as the third-most important issue in the 2024 election cycle, behind immigration and far behind the economy. 

Just 15% of voters ranked abortion as their No. 1 priority in 2024, according to a recent Fox News poll, compared to immigration, which 17% of voters said they viewed as the No. 1 issue, and the economy, which a strong 40% of voters ranked as their top priority.