Here are some of the unusual ways states conduct their votes

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Nov. 5 U.S. general election will decide the country's direction, but they are far from a nationally administered contest. The 50 states and the District of Columbia conduct their own elections, and each does it slightly differently.

Here's a look at some notable variations in the 2024 election:

Maine and Nebraska distribute electoral votes by congressional district

To ultimately win the presidency, a candidate must receive at least 270 of the 538 electoral college votes. In 48 states, the state winner receives all of that state's electoral votes, and this also applies to the state's capital.

In Maine and Nebraska, the candidate who receives the most votes in each congressional district wins one electoral vote in that district. The candidate who wins the statewide vote gets two more.

In 2020, Democrat Joe Biden received three of Maine's four electoral votes by winning the popular vote in the state and its 1st Congressional District. Republican Donald Trump received one electoral vote from the 2nd Congressional District. Trump won four of Nebraska's five popular vote wins in the state and the 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts; Biden received one electoral vote to win the 2nd Congressional District.

Alaska and Maine use ranked choice voting

In ranked-choice voting, voters rank candidates for office on the ballot in order of preference. If no candidate is the first choice for more than 50% of voters, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Voters who selected this candidate as their first choice will have their votes reallocated to their next election. This continues, with the candidate with the fewest votes being eliminated until someone emerges with the majority of votes.

Maine uses ranked-choice voting in state primaries and general elections for federal offices. That means Maine voters can evaluate presidential, Senate and House candidates on ballots that include the Democrat and Republican who emerged from their respective party's primaries, as well as third-party and independent candidates who qualify.

Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris and three other candidates will take part in the presidential election. In the six years since ranked-choice voting was implemented, the state has used it twice in congressional races in its 2nd Congressional District. The 2020 presidential race did not use ranked-choice voting, as the winners of the state and each congressional district received more than 52% of the vote.

Alaska holds open primaries for statewide offices and sends the top four vote-getters, regardless of party, to the general election, where the winner is determined through ranked-choice voting. In all legislative and state executive offices, Alaskans may list up to four names, which may include multiple candidates from the same party.

An exception is the presidency, which is eligible for ranked-choice voting for the first time in Alaska. There will be eight presidential candidates on the ballot this year, and Alaska residents will be able to vote for all candidates if they wish. The last time the winner of the Alaska presidential race failed to get more than 50% of the vote was 1992, when third-party candidate Ross Perot won nearly 20% of the statewide vote.

But in 2022, both Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski won their elections after both participated in ranked-choice voting.

Another wrinkle this year? There is one in Alaska, where ranked-choice voting was introduced through elections in 2020 Voter initiative on the ballot this fall to lift it.

In California and Washington, candidates from the same party can run against each other

California and Washington hold open primaries, in which all candidates run on the same ballot and the top two vote-getters advance to the general election, regardless of party. This year in Washington there are two races for the House of Representatives involving candidates from the same party, one with two Republicans and one with two Democrats. There are four of them in California: three with all Democrats and one with all Republicans.

The winning party in those six districts is shown in the Associated Press online graphic, which shows the balance of power in the House as the polls close, rather than when a winner is announced, because the winning party is a foregone conclusion.

Louisiana will hold a “primary election” on November 5th

Louisiana holds its so-called “open primary” on the same day that the rest of the country holds its general election. In Louisiana, all candidates participate in the same open primary. Any candidate who receives more than 50% of the vote in the primary wins the seat outright.

If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, there will be a direct runoff between the top two vote-getters, in which two Republicans or two Democrats can end up competing against each other. Louisiana refers to these contests as its “general elections.”

That will change in the elections for the US House of Representatives from 2026 when congressional elections have earlier primaries open only to registered members of a party. Certain states will continue to hold open primaries in November, but the change prevents future members of Congress from having to wait until December – a month later than the rest of the country – to find out whether they will travel to Washington.

There are two competing abortion measures on the ballot in Nebraska, but only one can pass

In Nebraska, any measure that receives about 123,000 valid signatures qualifies for the ballot. This year, two measures related to abortion reached this threshold.

It would enshrine in the Nebraska Constitution the right to have an abortion until the fetus is viable or later to protect the health of the pregnant woman. The other would write that into the constitution current 12 week suspensionwith the exception of rape, incest and to save the life of the pregnant woman.

This is the first time since the Supreme Court's 2022 decision overturning Roe v. Wade was repealed to prevent a state from taking actions intended to restrict abortion rights while protecting abortion rights on the ballot.

It is possible that voters will ultimately approve both measures. But because they compete and therefore cannot both be enshrined in the Constitution, the measure with the most “yes” votes will be the one that passes, according to Nebraska's secretary of state.

In Georgia, runoff elections occur when a candidate does not receive a majority of the vote

In primaries, some states, especially in the South, have runoffs if no candidate receives at least 50% of the vote. Races with more than two candidates often result in runoff elections in these states. Primary elections took place in several states this year.

Georgia applies the same rules for general elections. The last three Senate elections there went to runoffs because a third party candidate won enough votes to prevent the Republican or Democratic candidate from receiving more than 50% of the vote.

This year, however, runoff options are likely to be limited to downhill contests like state legislatures. There is no Senate election there this year, and there are only two candidates on the ballot for the U.S. House of Representatives election.

Texas, Florida and Michigan report many votes before the last polls close

This is common in states that span multiple time zones. In most states, polls close at the same time in each time zone.

The AP will not announce the winner of a race until all polls close in a jurisdiction, even if votes reported before then make it clear who will win the race. So if there is a statewide race in a state where polls close at 8:00 p.m. local time, but part of the state is in the Eastern time zone and part of the state is in the Central time zone, the earliest the AP can declare the winner is 8:00 p.m. CST/9:00 p.m. EST.

The AP continues to show results as they come in from counties with closed polls.

Some of the largest states with split polling deadlines are Florida, Michigan, Texas and Oregon. Tennessee is an exception because even though the state is in both the Eastern and Central time zones, all counties coordinate their votes to complete at the same time.

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