What time will we know the general election result?

After more than a month of active campaigning, all the hard work of the 2024 general election campaign will come to a hard stop at 10pm on Thursday, 4 July, when the final votes are cast.

An exit poll will likely give us the first indication of how the election result will pan out but nothing will be finalised until the last ballot is counted.

Here’s our breakdown of when to expect key developments throughout the night:

When can I vote?

Polling stations open from 7am. If you haven’t already registered to vote you’ve already missed the deadline and won’t be able to cast a ballot this time around.

But, you can still apply for an emergency proxy vote as late as 5pm on polling day if you are suddenly unable to vote in person, so long as you are already registered.

New rules and boundary changes mean you must have a valid photo ID to vote and your constituency may be different to the last election – you can use your postcode to check.

Officially, polls close at 10pm, but if you are at least in the queue by then you should still be able to cast your vote past time.

After that, votes are taken to counting halls run by the relevant local authority, ready to be sorted.

From 10pm media can also start reporting exit polls, which given an early indication of how the parties are performing across the country.

When are votes counted?

First, ballots have to make it from polling stations to the counting hall, which could take minutes or hours, depending how far they have to travel.

Once there, slips are verified to ensure they match data from their polling stations (such as the number of ballots issued throughout the day), before being mixed with postal votes for counting to begin in earnest.

When should we expect the first results?

A handful of seats usually manage to declare a result before midnight.

Traditionally, this honour has fallen to one of the Sunderland constituencies, although at the last two elections, in 2019 and 2017, that crown was snatched by Newcastle Central.

This time around, however, Newcastle has reportedly ruled itself out of the running for the top spot.

So does that mean I can have an early-ish night?

That depends. In 2019, one of the most significant results of the night was confirmed barely 90 minutes after close of polls (and that included a recount).

There was a similar phenomenon in Sunderland during the Brexit referendum, when the scale of the result on Wearside gave an early indication of the final outcome.

But with votes for 650 seats across the UK to count, you might be advised to stay up a little later if you’re really interested.

Okay, so when can I think about going to bed?

How early do you have to get up the next day?

In 2019, returning officers managed to confirm almost 50 seats before 2am – a great improvement on 2015, when the figure was just 17.

On the basis of the last two elections (which, like this one, were standalone polls without local authority and other votes going on at the same time, as happened in 2015), the bulk of results came between 2-5am, when results were being declared at a rate of almost three every minute.

And will there be a result by then?

Maybe. The magic number for a parliamentary majority is 326 seats, although in reality the actual number is slightly lower due to various factors.

If a party pulled off the slightly implausible achievement of winning 326 seats consecutively, a result could be confirmed by about 3.30am, again, on the basis of previous elections.

In reality, the process will likely take a lot longer.

Which will be the last seat to declare?

Probably St Ives, in Cornwall, which has taken the wooden spoon in two of the last three elections.

In 2015 and 2019 it was well past lunchtime the day after the election before a result was declared.

But in 2017 Kensington didn't confirm a shock victory in the seat until 9pm the day after, thanks to three recounts, although by that point the national result was a foregone conclusion.

Who is standing in my constituency?

Find your constituency on the map below to see the list of the candidates from the main political parties standing in your local area.

If you aren't sure of the full name of your constituency, you can quickly search for its name by adding your postcode or location here.

You can also check out our searchable database below to see a list of all the candidates standing in your area.