Election polls start closing soon — Here's when results will start coming in across Canada

It's finally election day, and Canadians are heading to the polls across the country to cast their ballots in the 2025 federal election.

If you're already planning your election night watch party — or just itching to know when results will roll in and you'll find out the winner — Elections Canada has shared exactly when we can expect the first updates.

Whether you voted early or are casting your ballot today, you're probably wondering how soon you can refresh your feed for live results. The good news is the first numbers from Elections Canada polls are expected not long after the first polling stations close.

The first preliminary results for the Canada election 2025 will start popping up shortly after 7 p.m. Eastern Time (4 p.m. Pacific). That's when the earliest polls Canada has will start closing, and returning officers will begin sending in their counts.

Elections Canada will post updates online and share results with media outlets in real time — so Canadians can follow along as the votes are counted.

Advance ballots are getting a head start this year too, Elections Canada says. Thanks to a high turnout at advance polls, election workers are allowed to start counting those ballots up to two hours before the polls close. That means some ridings could report a significant number of votes pretty quickly after 7 p.m. ET.

In fact, in the rural Ottawa riding of Carleton, counting started a full six hours early because of the massive ballot. A whopping 91 candidates are on the ballot in the riding long held by Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, making it nearly a metre long. It's all part of a protest that aims to make a point about electoral reform.

Most votes though, including ballots from election day and advance polls, will be counted locally right after polls close.

Special ballots — like those mailed in or cast by Canadians living abroad — are being counted either locally or at Elections Canada's Ottawa office, depending on where they came from. Some special ballots started getting counted up to two weeks ago, but their results won't be released until tonight.

Elections Canada says that while most ridings will report preliminary results within a few hours, it could still take time to finalize everything. The results you see tonight are considered preliminary — returning officers will validate all counts over the next few days to make sure they are 100% accurate.

But if you are keeping an eye out for preliminary results, they should start trickling in as polls close across the country — first on the East Coast at 7 and 7:30 p.m. ET (4 and 4:30 p.m. PT), followed by another wave of closures across most of the country at 9:30 p.m. ET (6:30 p.m. PT) and finally, B.C. and Yukon's closures at 10 p.m. ET (7 p.m. PT).

If you're glued to your screen tonight, check out Elections Canada's website and major news outlets for updates as they happen. Just be prepared — depending on how close some races are, and how many special ballots are still being verified, the full picture of the federal election might not come together until later this week.

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