Americans Vote in the Midterms as Polls Open and Control of Congress Is at Stake

Voting began across the United States on Tuesday, November 3, in midterm elections that will decide who controls Congress for the last two years of President Donald Trump's second term. The first polls opened in parts of Vermont at 5 a.m. Eastern Time, Reuters and Al Jazeera reported. Reuters said voters will deliver a verdict on the first two years of Trump's second term, with polls and nonpartisan analysts favoring Democrats to take the House from Republicans while control of the Senate remains uncertain.

The opening wave moved south and west through the morning. Polls opened at 6 a.m. Eastern Time in New Jersey, New York, Virginia, Connecticut and Kentucky. Georgia, Florida and Pennsylvania followed between 6 a.m. and 7 a.m., Ohio and North Carolina opened at 6:30 a.m., and Michigan opened at 7 a.m. Voters who are in line when their polls close can still cast a ballot.

What is at stake

All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for election, along with 35 of the Senate's 100 seats and governorships in 36 states, Fox News reported. Voters will also decide 145 statewide ballot measures. Republicans go into Election Day holding the House by 218 seats to 214 and the Senate by 53 to 47, according to Reuters. Democrats need a net gain of three House seats and four Senate seats to take both chambers. A Democratic Senate would have the power to block Trump appointments, including Supreme Court nominations if vacancies arise, Reuters reported.

A record early vote

More than 57 million Americans had already voted by Monday afternoon, according to an Associated Press analysis of early and mail voting, a total that passes the early vote cast in all of the 2022 midterms. Reuters reported that Trump's approval rating sits near his all time lows, that voters name affordability as their top concern, and that his tariff policy and his decision to attack Iran in February raised costs at home. Trump held more than two dozen campaign rallies from the start of October, and he closed the campaign with a speech in Washington on Monday.

Races that will show the direction

In North Carolina, former Democratic governor Roy Cooper faces Republican Michael Whatley for the open Senate seat left by Thom Tillis, the Asheville Citizen Times reported. North Carolina polls close at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time, which makes the race one of the first big signals of the night. In Michigan, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed faces former Republican representative Mike Rogers in a Senate race that took a late turn on Sunday, when Democrat Haley Stevens, who lost to El-Sayed in the primary, endorsed Rogers, Reuters reported. In Maine, five term Republican senator Susan Collins faces Democrat Troy Jackson.

The count tonight

The first polls close at 6 p.m. Eastern Time in parts of Indiana and Kentucky. Virginia follows at 7 p.m., and North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia at 7:30 p.m. Alaska is the last state to close, at about 1 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday. Close races may take days to settle, including Alaska's ranked choice count and California's slower count. On Monday, the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration's request to force California to set aside ballots from about 20,000 registered voters, leaving the state's existing counting rules in place for Election Day, the Associated Press and USA Today reported. Weather may also slow some voters: USA Today reported a marginal severe storm risk for Tuesday across parts of East Texas and the lower and middle Mississippi Valley, with damaging gusts and a brief tornado or two possible.