Early votes will come first on election night, and Texas polls close at 7 p.m. Tuesday

Voters who wait up Tuesday night for results should expect the first numbers to be mostly early votes.

Polls in Texas close at 7 p.m. local time on Tuesday, Nov. 3, and most counties are expected to release all or nearly all of their early and mail ballots in their first report of the night, ahead of any in-person Election Day results, according to an Associated Press guide to how it will count and call Texas races.

That matters because early voting has dominated recent Texas elections. About 68% of the ballots in the 2022 governor's race were cast early or by mail, the AP said. More than 8 million votes were cast in that race.

How fast the count moved last time

In the 2024 general election, the first Texas results appeared as polls began closing at 7 p.m. Central time, the AP said. Half the expected vote had been reported less than half an hour later, and 90% was in by about 11:17 p.m. Central.

Who gets called

The AP said it will report results and declare winners in races for U.S. Senate, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, comptroller, land commissioner, agriculture commissioner and railroad commissioner, along with U.S. House, the Texas Senate and House, the state Supreme Court, appeals courts and the State Board of Education.

The news service says it does not make projections. It calls a race only when it determines a trailing candidate has no remaining path to close the gap, and if a race is still uncalled it will say so and explain why.

Recounts

Under the rules the AP described, a tie in Texas triggers a recount automatically. A recount can be requested when the margin is less than 10% of the winner's vote total, or when fewer than 1,000 votes were cast in the race.

The AP said it may still call a race subject to a recount if the lead is too large for a recount or a legal challenge to overturn.

On the ballot statewide are the U.S. Senate race between Democrat James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton and the governor's race between Republican Gov. Greg Abbott and Democrat Gina Hinojosa.

Sources

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