What Time Will the Texas Election Results Come In, Including Cruz vs. Beto?

People across the nation have been watching the Ted Cruz vs. Beto O’Rourke campaign, and it finally ends today with November 6, 2018 general election. What time can you expect to see results in Texas, including the results of the Cruz vs. Beto race? Read on for details.

Results and projections won’t start coming in until after the polls close. At that time, news networks typically make projections as soon as they have enough information to see the direction of the race. But the official results won’t be announced until hours after the polls close in Texas.

All polls in Texas open at 7 a.m., and polls across Texas will close around 7 p.m. local time. It’s important to note that this is 7 p.m. local time, no matter what time zone you are in, El Paso Times reported. In other words, if you’re in a Central time zone in Texas, the polls will close at 7 p.m. Central. If you’re on Mountain Standard Time in El Paso, polls will close at 7 p.m. Mountain Standard Time, an hour behind the Central polls’ closing. But even at 7 p.m., many polls will stay open. Texas is legally required to remain open if people are waiting to enter the polling location at 7 p.m., so this means results could come in much later if there is a long line.

Early election results, meanwhile, could start being released as early as 7 p.m. Central after the first polls close, and this includes early results for the Ted Cruz-Beto O’Rourke election. But results will continue to be updated over time.

Turnout has been especially high because of the O’Rourke-Cruz race this midterm. The Texas Secretary of State announced that in the 30 largest counties, 4.9 million votes had already been cast during early voting. That is greater than the entire 2014 statewide voting turnout.

The O’Rourke vs. Cruz race has been heated. Beto O’Rourke broke fundraising records by bringing in more than $38 million from July to September. His third quarter fundraising beat Cruz by nearly three times. However, FiveThirtyEight is projecting that Cruz has a 7 in 9 (77 percent change) against O’Rourke. The most recent polls, however, are much closer than this. Change Research reported from Nov. 1-2 that Cruz and O’Rourke were at 49 percent and 49 percent: tied. Emerson College reported 47 percent for O’Rourke and 50 percent for Cruz in a survey from October 28-30.

READ NEXT: Watch multiple live streams of the election results as they come in tonight, right here.