These are the places we’ll be watching to get an idea, even before much of the country finishes voting, of the answers to all the big political questions we’ve been asking for well over a year. Generally, they’re eastern states with polls that close relatively early in the evening.

The canary races are the first time — after so much speculation — that we will get actual facts about the outcome of these elections.

So, let’s get down to it. Here are our canaries:

The blue wave? Both Kentucky’s Sixth District and the Seventh District in Virginia are pretty red places where Republicans should cruise to victory. But “should” is the key word here. On Election Day eve, our polls show both races nearly tied. If the Republicans lose, that will give us an early sign that Democrats just might pull off their blue wave.

Whither the Senate? The Senate has gotten surprisingly tight in the final days, with neck-and-neck races in Nevada, Arizona, Missouri and Indiana. The first to close is Indiana, at 6 p.m. EST. But polls in parts of the state close an hour later, including the historically Democratic southwest section. (Some of the state is in the Central time zone. Nothing can ever be easy, right?)

Given that several of the biggest Senate races are out west, we could be in for a long night. So, we’ll be keeping a close eye on the size of the Republican turnout in the early Indiana results to get a sense of how the Senate may be trending.