The Green Papers: 2016 General Election Polling Hours

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Alabama
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-7:00p CST (1300-0100 UTC).
Alaska
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-8:00p AKST (1600-0500 UTC) / 7:00a-8:00p HAST (1700-0600 UTC). Alaska Time covers most of the state except for the Aleutian Islands west of Umnak Island (approximately half of Aleutian Islands). The media considers Alaska's polls to close at 8 PM Alaska Time and, thus, considers the State "callable" after that hour.
American Samoa
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours reportedly 6:00a-6:00p SST (1700-0500 UTC).
Arizona
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 6:00a-7:00p MST (1300-0200 UTC).
Arkansas
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:30a-7:30p CST (1330-0130 UTC).
California
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-8:00p PST (1500-0400 UTC).
Colorado
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-7:00p MST (1400-0200 UTC). Colorado votes mostly by mail.
Connecticut
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 6:00a-8:00p EST (1100-0100 UTC).
Delaware
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-8:00p EST (1200-0100 UTC).
District of Columbia
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-8:00p EST (1200-0100 UTC).
Florida
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-7:00p EST (1200-0000 UTC) / 7:00a-7:00p CST (1300-0100 UTC). Relatively small portions of this state are in CT and so the vast majority of the polls are closed by the time indicated ET.
Georgia
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-7:00p EST (1200-0000 UTC).
Guam
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-8:00p ChST (2100-1000 UTC).
Hawaii
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election and Special Election for US House CD 1 . Polling hours 7:00a-6:00p HAST (1700-0400 UTC).
Idaho
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 8:00a-8:00p MST (1500-0300 UTC) / 8:00a-8:00p PST (1600-0400 UTC). Local option allows polling places to open at 7 AM. A sizable part of IDAHO is in PT but, as the MT section is the much more populated portion of the state, the networks consider that "most of the polls in IDAHO" are closed by 8 PM MT.
Illinois
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election and Special Election Comptroller . Polling hours 6:00a-7:00p CST (1200-0100 UTC).
Indiana
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 6:00a-6:00p EST (1100-2300 UTC) / 6:00a-6:00p CST (1200-0000 UTC). Although a portion of this state is in CT, the majority of the polls are closed by the time indicated ET when the networks feel they can project.
Iowa
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-9:00p CST (1300-0300 UTC).
Kansas
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-7:00p MST (1400-0200 UTC) / 7:00a-7:00p CST (1300-0100 UTC). For practical purposes, polling places open at 7 AM and close at 7 PM local time on Election Day. Technically, in the Central time zone, polling places open at 7 AM and close at 7 PM. However, a county may open the polls no earlier than 6 AM local time and close them no later than 8 PM. In the Mountain time zone, polling places open at 6 AM and close at 6 PM. However, a county may open the polls no earlier than 5 AM local time and close them no later than 7 PM.
Kentucky
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election and Speciial Election US House CD 1 . Polling hours 6:00a-6:00p EST (1100-2300 UTC) / 6:00a-6:00p CST (1200-0000 UTC). Poll closing time could be rather problematic in KENTUCKY. A large chunk of the state is in Central Time [but the networks consider that "most of the polls have closed" in KENTUCKY by 6 PM Eastern Time and so, if they can, project at the same time they project INDIANA]. Central Time voters in KENTUCKY may note the networks' willingness/eagerness to project a winner as early as 6 PM Eastern Time.
Louisiana
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 Open Primary/Presidential/Congressional . Polling hours 6:00a-8:00p CST (1200-0200 UTC).
Maine
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 6:00a-8:00p EST (1100-0100 UTC). Voting places open between 6:00a Eastern Time and 10:00a Eastern Time depending on the size of the town.
Maryland
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-8:00p EST (1200-0100 UTC).
Massachusetts
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-8:00p EST (1200-0100 UTC). By local option, municipalities may open their polls as early as 5:45 a.m.
Michigan
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-8:00p EST (1200-0100 UTC) / 7:00a-8:00p CST (1300-0200 UTC). Relatively small portions of this state are in Central Time and so the vast majority of the polls are closed by the time indicated Eastern Time, when the networks feel they can project.
Minnesota
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-8:00p CST (1300-0200 UTC). Voting begins at 10:00 AM in some townships.
Mississippi
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-7:00p CST (1300-0100 UTC).
Missouri
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 6:00a-7:00p CST (1200-0100 UTC).
Montana
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-8:00p MST (1400-0300 UTC). A polling place with less than 400 registered voters must be open at least from noon to 8 p.m. or until all registered electors have voted.
Nebraska
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 8:00a-8:00p CST / 7:00a-7:00p MST (1400-0200 UTC). The polls open and close at the same GMT/UTC time, that is, polls open and close at a particular local time in the advanced time zone and open and close one hour earlier local time in the lagging time zone.
Nevada
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-7:00p PST (1500-0300 UTC).
New Hampshire
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 6:00a-8:00p EST (1100-0100 UTC). Polls must open by 11 AM however most open between 7 AM and 8 AM. NEW HAMPSHIRE permits its 13 cities to keep their polls open until 8 PM Eastern Time by local option- however, as there ARE only 13 cities among New Hampshire's 234 County subdivisions [the 221 "non-cities", of course, being the proverbial New England Town(ship)], the fact is that the vast majority of NH's polls have closed by 7 PM Eastern Time and the networks have no problem considering this hour as the earliest hour of potential projection.
New Jersey
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 6:00a-8:00p EST (1100-0100 UTC).
New Mexico
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-7:00p MST (1400-0200 UTC).
New York
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 6:00a-9:00p EST (1100-0200 UTC).
North Carolina
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 6:30a-7:30p EST (1130-0030 UTC). In extraordinary circumstances, the county board of elections may direct that the polls remain open until 8:30 p.m.
North Dakota
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours reportedly 7:00a-9:00p CST (1300-0300 UTC) / 7:00a-9:00p MST (1400-0400 UTC). Voting places open between 7:00a to 12:00n and remain open until 7:00p to 9:00p depending on the size of the town. The western half of the state is in Mountain Time but that is, of course, the more sparsely populated part of the state, so it is not as problematic to the networks as might be otherwise suggested by simple geography. In 2012, polls closed at 8pm CST in Cass County and at 7pm CST or 7pm MST in most other polling places.
Northern Marianas
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-7:00p ChST (2100-0900 UTC).
Ohio
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 6:30a-7:30p EST (1130-0030 UTC).
Oklahoma
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-7:00p CST (1300-0100 UTC).
Oregon
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election and Special Election Governor . Polling hours end at 8:00p MST (0300 UTC) / 8:00p PST (0400 UTC). Oregon votes by mail. Ballots must be in the hands of election workers or in an official drop-off location no later than 8 PM local time. OREGON is the reverse of the norm because the by far largest portion of the state is in the lagging time zone and the networks have no choice but to not consider the OREGON polls closed until 8 PM Pacific.
Pennsylvania
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General and Special House CD 2 Election . Polling hours 7:00a-8:00p EST (1200-0100 UTC).
Puerto Rico
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 9:00a-5:00p AST (1300-2100 UTC).
Rhode Island
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-8:00p EST (1200-0100 UTC). Most polls are open at 7am. However, polls may open as late as 9am by location.
South Carolina
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-7:00p EST (1200-0000 UTC).
South Dakota
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-7:00p CST (1300-0100 UTC) / 7:00a-7:00p MST (1400-0200 UTC).
Tennessee
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-8:00p EST / 8:00a-7:00p CST (1400-0100 UTC). The polls close at the same GMT/UTC time, that is, polls close at a particular local time in the advanced time zone and close one hour earlier local time in the lagging time zone. Poll opening times are set by county.
Texas
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-7:00p CST (1300-0100 UTC) / 7:00a-7:00p MST (1400-0200 UTC). Only the area around El Paso is in Mountain Time, so the vast majority of polls have closed in Texas by 7 PM Central Time.
Utah
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-8:00p MST (1400-0300 UTC).
Vermont
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 5:00a-7:00p EST (1000-0000 UTC). Polls may open as early as 5:00a and no later than 10:00a as set by the Board of Civil Authority.
Virgin Islands
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-7:00p AST (1100-2300 UTC).
Virginia
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election / Special Election CD 7 . Polling hours 6:00a-7:00p EST (1100-0000 UTC).
Washington
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours end at 8:00p PST (0400 UTC). Washington votes by mail. Ballots must be postmarked no later than Midnight local time going into Election Day itself, or dropped off in a designated ballot box by 8 p.m. local time on Election Day itself.
West Virginia
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 6:30a-7:30p EST (1130-0030 UTC).
Wisconsin
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-8:00p CST (1300-0200 UTC).
Wyoming
- Tuesday 8 November 2016 General Election . Polling hours 7:00a-7:00p MST (1400-0200 UTC).

Time zone abbreviations

UTC: Coordinated Universal Time (Greenwich England)
AST: Atlantic Standard Time (Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands), UTC - 4 hours
EST: Eastern Standard Time, UTC - 5 hours
EDT: Eastern Daylight Time, UTC - 4 hours
CST: Central Standard Time, UTC - 6 hours
CDT: Central Daylight Time, UTC - 5 hours
MST: Mountain Standard Time, UTC - 7 hours
MDT: Mountain Daylight Time, UTC - 6 hours
PST: Pacific Standard Time, UTC - 8 hours
PDT: Pacific Daylight Time, UTC - 7 hours
AKST: Alaska Standard Time, UTC - 9 hours
AKDT: Alaska Daylight Time, UTC - 8 hours
HAST: Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time, UTC - 10 hours
HADT: Hawaii-Aleutian Daylight Time (Hawii does not observe daylight time), UTC - 9 hours
ChST: Chamorro Standard Time (Guam, Northern Marianas), UTC + 10 hours
SST: Samoa Standard Time, UTC - 11 hours
m: midnight
a: AM
p: PM

Primary dates marked "presumably" and polling times marked "reportedly" are based on unofficial or estimated data (especially as regards local variations from a jurisdictionwide statutory and/or regulatory standard) and are, thereby, subject to change.

2016 General Election Outline

Modified .