Indiana vote counting begins with 36% absentee ballots pre-processed

About 36% of all ballots cast in Indiana during the 2022 U.S. Senate race were submitted via early or absentee voting. Elections officials from more than three-quarters of the state's 92 counties plan to include all or nearly all of these results in their first vote update of the night. This procedural setup allows counting to begin before polls close on Tuesday.

Indiana voters will select leaders for federal, state, and other offices. The Associated Press will provide results and declare winners for U.S. House races, secretary of state, state Senate, state House, state auditor, and state treasurer. The AP will also cover statewide ballot measures.

Polls close at 6 p.m. local time. In Eastern Time, that is 6 p.m. in the western part of the state and 7 p.m. in the eastern part. Based on the 2024 general election, the first results were reported at 6:05 p.m. ET. That timestamp was five minutes after the polls closed in the Eastern time zone.

In the 2024 election, Indiana reached the 50% reporting threshold at 8:30 p.m. ET. The state hit the 90% reporting mark at 11:49 p.m. ET. The AP stated it does not make projections. It will declare a winner only when it determines no scenario allows a trailing candidate to close the gap.

If a race remains uncalled, the AP will continue covering newsworthy developments such as candidate concessions or victory declarations. The outlet will clarify that it has not yet declared a winner and explain the reason. In the 2022 U.S. Senate race, approximately 1.9 million votes were cast in the state.

Indiana has no automatic recount rules. A candidate may request and pay for a recount regardless of the vote margin. Costs may be partly or fully refunded depending on the recount outcome. The AP may declare a winner in a race subject to a recount if the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the result.