U.S. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is optimistic about predicting the Georgia winner on election night. Mr. Raffensperger said that more than 4 million early voting and mail-in ballots had been received and accepted, and that all ballots had to be uploaded and recorded within an hour of the polls closing. Most polling stations will close at 7pm, he said: "By 8pm it's probably 99 per cent of the votes, so people will have a good idea of how the campaign is going, and then all the votes you see today, you'll see the results by the end of the night."