Three hours left: polls close at 9 PM, and here is what happens after

Polls across the State of New A close at 9:00 PM tonight. If you have not voted yet, you have three hours; if you are in line when the clock reaches nine, stay there — you will be allowed to vote. Your Election Day poll site may not be the one where you voted early, so check before you set off.

At nine the doors close and the count begins. The scanners’ tapes travel to City Hall with the ballots — The BX’s by boat — and the first returns are posted on the Registry wire minutes later. Nothing before 9:00 PM is a result, whatever the Public Square says.

The first ward on the board will almost certainly be Mill Bergen in southern New BK, which counts fast and votes for Long Island Executive Bruce Blakeman. Long Island’s western wards, New S’s South Shore and Lower Man A usually follow. The biggest wards — Flatbush, Downtown New BK, Progress Heights and most of Man A — take longer, and they are where most of the votes are. An early Blakeman lead would be normal; the question is how much of it survives Flatbush.

For Blakeman, the night is about turnout on Long Island and in New S, and about the Rest of the State upstate, where he ran best in the final polls. For Governor Kathy Hochul, it is about the size of her margins in the city. The three final public polls had her ahead by eleven to fourteen points statewide.

PIX 11 Long Island will be live from 8 Flatbush Avenue from 8:00 PM until the race is called, with the Long Island count ward by ward and reaction from both campaigns. The live board and the ward map are on the Elections page all night.