When Do Polls Close Today? SC, Minnesota & Wisconsin Primary Times + Live Odds (Aug 11)
When do polls close today? For Tuesday, August 11, the short version: 7 p.m. ET in South Carolina, and 9 p.m. ET (8 p.m. local) in both Minnesota and Wisconsin. Three states vote tonight, but the prediction markets say they are not three equally live questions. One race is a real scramble, one is a two-name fight, and one state's board has already been called by the people betting on it. That difference, between when a state stops voting and when its race actually gets decided, is the story of the night, and it is exactly what the live prices below are for.
The Quick Answer
Polls close at 7:00 p.m. ET in South Carolina (Senate special Republican primary), and at 9:00 p.m. ET / 8:00 p.m. local time in Minnesota and Wisconsin (governor primaries in both states). As of Monday night, Kalshi traders make appointed incumbent Darline Graham Nordone a 46-cent favorite in South Carolina's three-way Senate fight, Lisa Demuth a 65-cent favorite over Mike Lindell on Minnesota's Republican side, and Francesca Hong a 95-cent near-lock in Wisconsin's Democratic race. The full closing-time table, every race's live board, and why South Carolina's favorite is really trading on an August 25 runoff are all below.
Poll Closing Times For The August 11 Primaries
The answer in ten seconds, straight from the state election authorities (the South Carolina Election Commission, and the Minnesota and Wisconsin state guidance for the August 11 primary):
| State | Race Tonight | Polls Close (Local) | Polls Close (ET) |
|---|---|---|---|
| South Carolina | U.S. Senate special Republican primary | 7:00 p.m. ET | 7:00 p.m. ET |
| Minnesota | Governor primaries (both parties) | 8:00 p.m. CT | 9:00 p.m. ET |
| Wisconsin | Governor primaries (both parties) | 8:00 p.m. CT | 9:00 p.m. ET |
Two details worth knowing before you plan your night. First, being in line at closing time still gets you a ballot (South Carolina's election commission states it explicitly), so a busy precinct can push the first meaningful returns past the listed hour. Second, closing time is not calling time: South Carolina typically begins reporting soon after 7, while Wisconsin routinely counts its largest cities' absentee ballots late into the evening.
If you only remember one number, make it this one: by 9 p.m. ET, every poll in all three states is closed and the count is on everywhere.
So the polls tell you when the voting stops. The markets tell you what people with money on the line expect once it does, and that is where tonight gets interesting, because the three states are priced as three completely different kinds of race.
South Carolina: The One Truly Live Race (Polls Close 7 P.m. ET)
The Senate special Republican primary is the night's main event, and the Kalshi board treats it that way. This is the race to pick the Republican nominee for the seat of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, and the market on the primary winner is the most heavily traded of the night. Here is the live board as of Monday night, August 10:
| Candidate | Kalshi Price (Yes) | Implied Chance |
|---|---|---|
| Darline Graham Nordone | 46¢ | 46% |
| Ralph Norman | 28¢ | 28% |
| Russell Fry | 23¢ | 23% |
| Mark Sanford | 3¢ | 3% |
| Nancy Mace, Pamela Evette, Others | 1¢ or less | Longshots |
The row that matters is the top one, and not for the reason you might think. Graham Nordone, the appointed incumbent, has led the public polling (a late-July Trafalgar Group survey had her at 27 percent against 17.4 apiece for Congressmen Fry and Norman), and yet the market will not push her past the mid-40s. That is not the market doubting her lead. It is the market reading South Carolina's rules: a candidate needs a majority to win the primary outright, and with three names splitting most of the vote, almost nobody expects that tonight. If no one clears 50 percent, the top two finishers go to a runoff on August 25. The contract language itself is simple: each candidate's market resolves Yes only when she wins the special primary, paying $1, while every other name settles at zero, so a runoff just delays the payout rather than voiding it. Her 46-cent price is the one I keep coming back to, and I will show you what is actually inside it in the worked example below.
For the full candidate-by-candidate breakdown, including how an AI panel priced this same board against the market, our South Carolina Senate special primary verdict covers the race in depth.
Minnesota: A Two-Name Republican Fight (Polls Close 9 P.m. ET)
An hour after South Carolina wraps, Minnesota closes, and its night splits cleanly in half. On the Democratic side, the market considers the governor primary finished before it starts: Amy Klobuchar trades at 99.7 cents, as close to a settled contract as an open market gets. Nobody is paying for drama there.
The Republican side is the live one. Kalshi prices it as a true two-name race:
| Candidate | Kalshi Price (Yes) | Implied Chance |
|---|---|---|
| Lisa Demuth | 65¢ | 65% |
| Mike Lindell | 36¢ | 36% |
| Kendall Qualls | 1.4¢ | Longshot |
The interesting number here is not Demuth's 65 cents. It is the volume behind Lindell's 36. His market has traded more than twice as many contracts as hers (roughly 547,000 to 238,000), which tells you where the public's attention, and disagreement, is concentrated. A 36-cent underdog carrying the heaviest action on the board is the classic signature of a race the market thinks is closer than the favorite's price makes it look, or at least one it cannot stop arguing about. When Minnesota's count starts at 9 p.m. ET, this is the number to watch move.
Minnesota's November picture is bigger than tonight, of course: the state also hosts one of the cycle's most watched Senate races, and our Minnesota Senate model verdict prices that general-election board in full.
Wisconsin: The Market Called It Before Polls Even Open (Polls Close 9 P.m. ET)
Wisconsin shares Minnesota's 8 p.m. local close, and its governor primaries share a shape: the market has essentially called both sides already. Republicans first: Congressman Tom Tiffany trades at 99.7 cents, a done deal in the market's eyes. The Democratic side keeps a little more suspense, but only a little:
| Candidate | Kalshi Price (Yes) | Implied Chance |
|---|---|---|
| Francesca Hong | 95¢ | 95% |
| David Crowley | 5¢ | 5% |
| Josh Kaul, Others | Under 1¢ | Longshots |
The one row worth narrating is Crowley's. A nickel is not nothing: his market has absorbed about 1.25 million contracts of trading against Hong's 1.7 million, so plenty of money has traded this race even as it settled into a near-lock. But Monday night's price is the market's closing argument: Hong at 95 cents means traders see roughly a 19-in-20 chance the race is hers when Wisconsin's count comes in. The practical takeaway for tonight is that Wisconsin is the state where the poll-closing time and the race-calling time should sit closest together, barring the kind of late Milwaukee absentee count the state is famous for.
Those two near-locks are also why the South Carolina scramble matters more than one state's Senate seat: tonight is most of the drama the August calendar has left, and the market knows it.
Worked Example: What A 46-Cent Favorite Really Means
Here is the callback I promised on Graham Nordone's price, worked through the way you would read any prediction-market board. A Kalshi contract pays $1 if the answer is yes, so a 46-cent price is the market saying she has roughly a 46 percent chance to win the primary, not merely to lead tonight's count. Now stack the board: Graham Nordone at 46, Norman at 28, Fry at 23. Those top three prices alone account for 97 cents of probability, which tells you the market sees essentially zero chance of a surprise name and a real chance for any of the three.
Then apply the majority rule. Trafalgar's late-July poll put the leader at 27 percent, nowhere near the 50 percent needed to win outright, so the likeliest path tonight is that no one clears the bar and the top two advance to the August 25 runoff. Read that way, a 46-cent favorite makes sense: her price bundles the near-certainty of making the runoff with what amounts to a coin flip in the runoff itself, two weeks later, against whichever congressman joins her. A casual reader sees "46 percent favorite" and thinks tonight settles it; the board is quietly telling you the real decision date is probably August 25. That gap between what a price looks like and what it is actually pricing is the whole skill of reading these markets.
Where To Follow Every Race After Tonight
The August 11 primary odds above are one slice of a midterm cycle the markets are pricing every day, and tonight feeds directly into the bigger boards: whoever wins South Carolina's runoff spot becomes the name the November markets have to price. Our 2026 midterm election odds hub tracks every race on one board, and the chamber-level stakes (what tonight's nominees mean for control) are priced in our House control verdict and the full 2026 balance-of-power breakdown. And if elections are just one corner of your betting interest, the free expert picks today board is where our analysts post their daily plays across every sport, free.
FAQ
What time do polls close in South Carolina today? 7:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, August 11, for the U.S. Senate special Republican primary. Polling places open at 7:00 a.m., and anyone in line at 7 p.m. may still vote.
What time do polls close in Minnesota and Wisconsin today? 8:00 p.m. local time (Central), which is 9:00 p.m. ET, in both states, for the August 11 governor primaries.
Who is favored in the South Carolina Senate special primary? As of Monday night, Kalshi traders price Darline Graham Nordone at 46 cents, ahead of Ralph Norman at 28 and Russell Fry at 23. Because South Carolina requires a majority, an August 25 runoff between the top two is the market's expected outcome.
When will results be known? South Carolina's count starts moving shortly after 7 p.m. ET, and the runoff question could be answered within hours. Minnesota and Wisconsin start reporting after 9 p.m. ET. Wisconsin's largest cities often report absentee ballots late; tonight's governor boards are not priced as close, but any truly tight Wisconsin race can stretch past midnight.
Do these markets settle tonight? Only if a race is won outright. In South Carolina, if no candidate clears 50 percent, the primary-winner market rides through the August 25 runoff before it resolves.
