Politico has a great summary of the poll closing times for the entire United States, summarized in the chart above (click map to enlarge), that should give you a fairly good idea of how the night will unfold. By 9pm Eastern, most of the states will have closed their polls and we should already have a good idea of where the election is headed. It’s unlikely, though, that we’ll have an official call of the election before 11:00pm Eastern/8:00pm Pacific unless a lot of the battleground states on the East Coast end up getting decided early. When the West Coast closes at 11pm Eastern, though, we likely will have a winner, or at least a fairly strong indication of who will win once an official announcement is made.
For a frame reference, here’s a list of when the election has been officially called by the Associated Press in every election since 1996:
When the AP called the election
2012: 11:38 pm, Tuesday
2008: 11 pm, Tuesday
2004: 11:19 am, Wednesday
2000: No call
1996: 9 pm, Tuesday— Nick Timiraos (@NickTimiraos) November 7, 2016
