On Election Day, polls are open until 7 p.m., but some polling stations might still have people queuing at closing time.

By law, these voters must have the opportunity to vote. Some voters had to wait several hours to vote on Election Day in previous years, such as during primaries 2020when queues stretched for hours after closing time.

This may delay the release of election results.

Once all ballots have been cast at a polling location, polling place supervisors must follow a series of security measures. Before leaving the polling place, they must fill out paperwork showing the number of ballots counted by ballot scanners and the number of voters who have registered to vote. They must also package ballots and other items and return them to the county counting center – the place where ballots are counted, vote totals are determined and unofficial results are generated on election night. election.

This is all an important part of the process. Polling place supervisors must pay close attention to detail and ensure that everything – ballots, documents and equipment – ​​is accounted for before being delivered to the counting center. In Collin County, this step can take poll workers up to an hour after they have processed all voters and closed the polls.

“What you’re talking about here is election integrity. You need to make sure you have a good chain of custody, meaning your records show every aspect of what happened at that polling location,” said Collin County Election Administrator Bruce Sherbet .

In larger counties, returning ballots and materials to the county’s central counting center may take time and delay election results. Giant Harris County will receive election results from 700 polling places. One of them, in Baytown, east of Houston, is 40 minutes from the county election headquarters.

To speed up the process, Harris and other large counties will have designated substations throughout the county where election workers can drop off their materials to begin counting votes.

Tarrant County, which will operate 349 polling places on Election Day, will have seven sites where poll workers can deliver materials, said Clint Ludwig, the county elections administrator. Harris County officials said they will have six locations across the county.

Once everything is turned in, election administrators then review and verify the information from each polling location. Counties must publish the comparison of the number of voters and the number of ballots cast on their election websites.