Americans vote in crucial midterm elections

US citizens are voting in Tuesday's midterms for who they want to see in the Capitol. Midterm elections are held every four years, at the exact halfway point between presidential elections. The people of the United States decide who will represent them in the two chambers of the US Congress, the House of Representatives and the Senate. Some states are also voting for their governor. These are the decisions on the ballot paper — but they are not the only thing voters will be taking into account.

#WATCH | US midterm elections | Voters begin coming in as the voting begins at a polling station in Maryland. Visuals from a polling station in Gaithersburg, Maryland. https://t.co/EAIRvAiCbr

— ANI (@ANI) November 3, 2026

The first polling stations opened at 5 a.m. (1000 GMT) in the eastern US state of Vermont for the midterm elections.Voting is to follow in Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, New Jersey, New York and Virginia from 6 a.m. local time. And polls open in West Virginia, North Carolina and Ohio at 6:30 a.m. More than 57 million ballots were cast early in 47 states and Washington DC as of Monday. Many more votes will be cast in person on Tuesday. Polling stations across the country close between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m., with vote counting beginning immediately afterwards.
Several closely contested races across the country could influence the balance of power in Washington. The Senate contests in Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Alaska, alongside competitive House districts in Pennsylvania, Iowa and New York, are among the races attracting national attention. All 435 House seats and 35 of the 100 Senate seats are at stake, along with governorships in 36 states. Democrats need only three House gains and a net four seats in the Senate to wrest both chambers from Republican hands.
The US Justice Department was deploying 1,000 election monitors and observers to all 50 states in what it called the largest Election Day monitoring effort in history. The number of monitors is roughly triple the number in the last midterm election. The deployment would be the largest observation effort in the department's history.