When are Wisconsin's presidential and U.S. Senate election results coming in?

Don't expect to know how Wisconsin voted in the presidential election before you go to bed Tuesday night.

That's because of the state's increasingly razor-thin vote margins and recent surges in absentee voting. Amid nationwide political polarization, Wisconsin's elections are tighter than ever, with the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections in Wisconsin being decided by less than 1% of the vote, or about 20,000 voters.

Here's what we know about the timeline of election results in Wisconsin and how long you should be prepared to wait for them.

When can we expect unofficial election results in Wisconsin?

It's important to note any election results we see in the hours after Election Day are technically still unofficial. Certifying the official results of Wisconsin elections is a multi-step process that will take several weeks.

However, media outlets like the Associated Press, are often able to call elections much earlier based on unofficial vote results. The AP calls a race only when vote returns indicate that it is statistically impossible for anyone but one candidate to win.

So when can we expect this call in Wisconsin? For down-ballot races, like local or county elections, this might be right after polls close at 8 p.m. For tighter, statewide races — including the U.S. Senate and presidential election — it can take a lot longer.

In 2020, the AP called Wisconsin for Joe Biden at 2:16 p.m. on Nov. 4, the day after Election Day — though the number of absentee ballots were especially high that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and further slowed down the count. In 2016, the AP called Wisconsin for Donald Trump at 2:29 a.m. on Nov. 9, the early morning hours after Election Day.

So far, in 2024, since early voting opened on Oct. 22, Wisconsin has already received over 1.5 million absentee ballots.

Given the 2016 and 2020 timelines, it's unlikely Wisconsin will be called for either former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris before midnight on Election Day. Election officials seem to agree we'll likely have to wait until very late on Election Day or the early morning hours of Nov. 6 for unofficial results.

In a media briefing in October, Wisconsin Elections Commission administrator Meagan Wolfe said some localities have taken steps, like hiring more poll workers, to count votes more efficiently. Still, she added, accuracy takes priority over speed when it comes to counting votes.

"Election officials are not willing to sacrifice accuracy in order to be faster with results," Wolfe said. "So it will take as long as it takes to get it exactly right, and every step of that process, every ballot that's counted, will be counted in the public eye."

When do votes start getting counted in Wisconsin?

In Wisconsin, all ballots (including absentee ballots) are counted on Election Day.

Immediately after polls close at 8 p.m. on Nov. 5, election inspectors start tabulating the returns, or results, for all votes cast at their polling place, according to the WEC.

Absentee ballots can begin to be counted when polls open at 7 a.m. on Election Day.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: When are Wisconsin's election results coming in?