I think New Jersey closes the polls at something like 8pm est. I say this because I always recall it being one of the first states to report. I may be wrong and it is 9pm, but hey let's hear it from someone who knows. If this news of Bush taking NJ comes in at 8pm, we will have a big LOL all night long. It has been difficult to take all this coverage parotting this same notion from the same angle. they just multiplyeach other without a dime's worth of differnece. FOX seems afraid to differ with the MSM anymore. They have really become pussycats.
I have my ballot in front of me.
NJ polls close at 8pm.
You are correct; New Jersey polls are open from 6 AM to 8 PM. I have to be at my district polling place to open it up by 5:15 AM Tuesday. When the polls close it generally takes 20 minutes or so to read, record and confirm (re-read and check) the totals. Party representatives are generally there and call in the results to their supervisors.
I physically deliver the results to the borough clerk's office; I believe that they phone them in from there to the county board of elections. So anything sooner than 9 PM is probably based on exit polls.
Some people like to screw around with exit pollsters.