Key takeaways:
- All 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats are being contested, along with governorships in 36 states.
- On November 3, the first polls open at 5 a.m. Eastern in Vermont; the last close at 1 a.m. Eastern the next day in parts of Alaska.
- More than 57 million voters have cast early ballots, according to CBS News.
Polls are set to open across the United States on November 3 for midterm elections that will decide control of Congress. More than 57 million voters have already cast ballots early, according to CBS News.
More than 230 million people are eligible to vote, Al Jazeera reported. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives and 35 of the Senate’s 100 seats are being contested. Voters in 36 states will also elect governors. Republicans currently hold both chambers of Congress.
Voting hours vary by state. The earliest polls open in Vermont at 5 a.m. Eastern Time, followed at 6 a.m. by polls in Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Virginia, according to CBS News. Ohio, North Carolina and West Virginia begin voting at 6:30 a.m. Eastern. The last polls to open are in Alaska and Washington at 11 a.m. Eastern and Hawaii at noon Eastern.
The first polls close at 6 p.m. Eastern in parts of Indiana and Kentucky. By 7 p.m., voting ends in Georgia, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia, as well as the rest of Indiana and Kentucky and most of Florida. North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia follow at 7:30 p.m. Eastern. Polls close at 11 p.m. Eastern in California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington; Hawaii closes at midnight Eastern. The last polls, in parts of Alaska, close at 1 a.m. Eastern the next day, CBS News reported.
CBS News reported that 47 states and the District of Columbia offer early voting options; Alabama, Mississippi and New Hampshire are the exceptions. Eight states and Washington, D.C., automatically send mail ballots to every registered voter, although voters generally can still vote in person. Voters who are in line before their polling place closes have the right to remain in line and cast a ballot, CBS News said.
Results could begin arriving on Election Day as polls close and continue the next day. An early vote count does not necessarily establish a winner: election officials release totals as ballots are processed, while news organizations analyze the returns to determine when a race can be called. Closely contested races could take hours or days to call, and many mail, provisional and other ballots may be counted after election night, Al Jazeera reported.
Senate Democrats need a net gain of four seats to reach a majority, while House Democrats need three, according to Al Jazeera. Among the Senate contests the outlet identified are Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff against Republican Mike Collins in Georgia; Republican Senator Susan Collins against Democrat Troy Jackson in Maine; and Republican Senator Ashley Moody against Democrat Angie Nixon in Florida. It also highlighted races in Michigan, New Hampshire and North Carolina.
Whether either party has secured control of Congress may not be clear on election night. For voters casting ballots in person, the immediate deadline is their local polling place’s closing time.
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