Florida election night 2026: Poll closing times, the races to watch and how fast results come in

Florida voters who have not yet cast a ballot get their last chance Tuesday, Nov. 3, when polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. local time. The first results will start appearing within half an hour of the close, because Florida law requires county canvassing boards to post their early voting and already counted mail ballots almost immediately. With about a third of the state's 13.7 million active registered voters already having voted by Friday, according to the Tampa Bay Times, that first batch could tell Floridians a great deal about the governor's race, the U.S. Senate race and three constitutional amendments that each need 60% to pass.

When the polls close

Florida straddles two time zones, and daylight saving time ended Sunday morning, so clocks on Election Day will be on standard time. Most of the state votes on Eastern time. Much of the western Panhandle, including the Pensacola, Fort Walton Beach and Panama City areas, runs on Central time, so its polls close an hour later by Eastern clocks. Voters who are in line when polls close are still allowed to vote.

The key times on election night and in the days after break down this way:

How Florida counts so fast

Florida has a reputation for reporting most of its vote on election night, and the reason is in state law. Under section 101.68 of the Florida Statutes, a county canvassing board may begin canvassing vote by mail ballots as soon as it has publicly tested its tabulating equipment, which happens weeks before Election Day. Ballots are checked, opened and run through scanners in advance. What the law forbids is releasing any of those totals before the polls close in that county. An election official who releases results early commits a third degree felony.

Once the polls close, section 102.141 requires each canvassing board to report all early voting and all tabulated mail ballot results to the Department of State within 30 minutes. After that, counties must post updated precinct results at least every 45 minutes until everything is reported. The statewide numbers appear on the Department of State's Florida Election Watch site, floridaelectionwatch.gov.

That sequence means the first wave of numbers on Tuesday night will be dominated by votes cast before Election Day, and Election Day precinct returns will follow. Viewers should expect the early tallies to shift as precinct results arrive, in a direction that depends on which party's voters favored which method this year.

There is one firm cutoff for mail voters. Under section 101.67, a mail ballot must be in the supervisor of elections' hands by 7 p.m. on Election Day to count. A postmark does not save a late ballot. Election supervisors have been urging voters who still have a mail ballot to drop it off rather than put it in the mail, as the Tampa Bay Times reported this week. Voters whose mail ballot signature does not match their record can fix it with a cure affidavit until 5 p.m. on the second day after the election, which this year is Thursday.

If a race finishes within half a percentage point, state law triggers an automatic machine recount, as happened in this year's Republican primary in the 11th Congressional District.

The top races

The marquee contest is the open governor's race between Republican U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds and Democrat David Jolly. The Tampa Bay Times noted that Florida governor's races tend to tighten: Republicans won the office by a little more than 1% in 2010 and by less than half a percent in 2018. Three recent polls, a St. Pete Polls survey for Florida Politics, a New York Times/Siena poll and a University of North Florida poll, showed Jolly winning voters with no party affiliation by 14 to 22 points while Donalds held a slim overall lead, largely because Republicans have about 1.5 million more active registered voters than Democrats.

Money has not been close. Records filed with the Division of Elections show Donalds' campaign and his Friends of Byron Donalds political committee raised more than $173 million and spent more than $165 million through Oct. 29, Florida Politics reported. Jolly's campaign and committee raised nearly $27 million and spent nearly $25 million over the same period.

"In a year like this one, they're the ballgame," Sean Freeder, director of UNF's Public Opinion Research Lab, told the Times, referring to independent voters.

The rest of the top of the ticket, all covered in earlier reporting by The Florida Press, includes:

• U.S. Senate: Republican Sen. Ashley Moody faces Democratic state Rep. Angie Nixon. Most polls show Moody ahead by single digits, and on Friday the Cook Political Report moved the race from Solid Republican to Likely Republican.
• Cabinet: Attorney General James Uthmeier, Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson each face Democratic challengers.
• U.S. House: Under the map Republicans redrew this year, Democratic Reps. Kathy Castor of Tampa, Jared Moskowitz in South Florida and Darren Soto in the Orlando area are running in redrawn Republican leaning seats, and newcomer Pia Dandiya is trying to hold another South Florida seat for Democrats. The Times reported that ratings services consider Castor's race and the two South Florida contests toss-ups. Democrats are also targeting Republican U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna's Pinellas seat.

The Legislature's supermajorities

Less visible but consequential are the state House and Senate races. Republicans hold two-thirds supermajorities in both chambers. Democrats have said six seats separate them from breaking the supermajority in the House and two in the Senate, WUSF reported. A two-thirds majority lets the majority override a governor's veto, waive the rule that bills be read on three separate days and pass public records exemptions without votes from the minority party. A three-fifths vote, also within Republican reach, is enough to place constitutional amendments on the ballot.

Three amendments, one 60% bar

Every statewide ballot measure in Florida needs 60% of the vote, not a simple majority. This year's three were all placed on the ballot by the Legislature:

• Amendment 1 would raise the cap on the state's Budget Stabilization Fund, its rainy day reserve, from 10% to 25% of general revenue and require yearly deposits of up to $750 million.
• Amendment 2 would exempt tractors, equipment and other tangible personal property on agricultural land from property taxes starting in 2027.
• Amendment 3 would raise the homestead exemption for non-school property taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028. The Times reported that most recent polls do not show it reaching 60%, though many respondents were undecided.

Local questions on the ballot

Many Floridians will also decide local tax questions, several of them tied to schools. In Duval County, voters will decide whether to renew a 1-mill school property tax that the district says raises about $121 million a year for teacher and employee pay, arts and athletics. Brevard County voters will decide whether to renew the Save Our Indian River Lagoon half-cent sales tax for 10 years, along with renewals of a school millage and a school half-cent sales surtax. Osceola and Leon counties also have school millage questions, and Sumter County voters will consider a 2% tourist development tax. St. Petersburg voters face a slate of city referenda and charter amendments. Orange County, by contrast, is not putting a new sales tax before voters this year; Mayor Jerry Demings said he could not support advancing one.

Where to look for early signals

A few places will say more than others on Tuesday night.

Pinellas County is Jolly's home turf; he represented the area in Congress as a Republican, and political analysts often cite the county as a bellwether. A strong Jolly margin there would fit his argument that independents and some Republicans are moving his way.

Hillsborough County could be a test for Amendment 3. Jake Hoffman, executive director of the Tampa Bay Young Republicans, told the Times he expects the stadium deal for the Tampa Bay Rays to push county voters toward the tax cut. "If you can spend a billion dollars on a stadium, you don't need my extra $1,000 a year," he said, describing what he hears from voters.

Miami-Dade County will show whether Republicans' socialism message against Nixon, who recently joined the Democratic Socialists of America, pays off with voting blocs such as Cuban exiles, part of a Latino electorate the Times describes as up for grabs this year.

Turnout among Black and younger voters, which Nixon's supporters say her ground game can lift, could matter for Jolly too, as could the size of the Republican Election Day vote that Florida Republicans have relied on.

What's next

Results posted Tuesday night are unofficial. Counties must send unofficial returns to the state by noon Saturday, Nov. 7, after counting cured mail ballots and resolving provisional ballots, and any race within half a point goes to a machine recount. If the amendments pass, Amendment 1 would take effect Jan. 5, 2027, and Amendments 2 and 3 would apply beginning in 2027. The next governor will be sworn in in January.