2026 elections live updates on midterm battle for control of Congress

The North Carolina Board of Elections said following an emergency session that it is extending voting hours at five precincts in four counties — Columbus, Hertford, Lenoir and Wilson — because of interruptions in voting during Election Day.

The elections board said statewide results will be posted 45 minutes later than scheduled, at around 8:15 p.m.

State law gives the North Carolina Board of Elections the power to extend voting hours at sites where it has been disrupted for at least 15 minutes.

"With about 2,625 polling places statewide, it is not unusual for minor issues to occur at polling sites that result in brief disruptions to voting," the board said. "The State Board routinely meets to discuss the extension of hours when the need arises on Election Day."

Gas prices on Tuesday are averaging $4.15 per gallon, according to AAA, the highest of any Election Day in U.S. history. 

On Election Day in 2022, the previous record, gas averaged $3.80 a gallon. 

In 2024, when Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris, the average price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. was $3.10. 

Election officials in Fulton County, Georgia, are warning voters about unauthorized text messages claiming polling places have changed, raising concerns about potential voter confusion as Americans head to the polls.

"Some Fulton County voters have reported receiving text messages regarding polling place changes. These text messages were not sent by Fulton County," the county said on X. "Voters should verify their polling place on the Georgia My Voter page or call 404-612-7020."

It remains unclear how many voters received the messages, who sent them or whether anyone was prevented from voting as a result. Fulton County includes Atlanta and is the most populous county in Georgia.

The warning comes amid heightened scrutiny of election security in the state, where misleading information and threats have disrupted past elections.

During the 2024 presidential election, several polling locations in metro Atlanta were temporarily disrupted by bomb threats that officials determined were not credible. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the threats appeared to originate from Russia.

Fulton County also has a history of confusion involving polling locations. During the 2022 midterm elections, independent observers from the Carter Center reported significant numbers of voters arriving at incorrect precincts, likely because of changes associated with redistricting. (That confusion was not attributed to a coordinated misinformation campaign.)

Fulton County operates its own legitimate text notification system, known as FALCON, which can alert voters to actual polling-place changes.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has reinstated a decision from three judges on the court that granted a Justice Department request to freeze a district court's temporary restraining order. Under that order, the Trump administration could not request election officials set aside ballots returned from alleged noncitizens and threaten prosecution of those who fail to comply with the demand.

The 9th Circuit has been at the center of several appeals involving the Trump administration's efforts to force state and local election officials to separate mail ballots received from people that it alleges are not U.S. citizens. The Justice Department had asked California to put to the side ballots from more than 20,000 alleged noncitizens and called for Washington's secretary of state to sequester mail ballots returned by up to over 400 people it claims are not U.S. citizens.

The Trump administration also said in letters to officials in the two states that "knowingly facilitating" voting by noncitizens is unlawful.

Two labor unions, the NAACP and the League of United Latin American Citizens filed a lawsuit and secured an order from a federal judge that barred the Trump administration from making further demands for election workers to separate ballots and "threats" of prosecution.

The Trump administration appealed to the 9th Circuit. A panel of three judges sided with the Justice Department and agreed to freeze the district court's decision. Then, a fuller complement of judges on the 9th Circuit set aside the ruling from the panel and reconsidered the issue.

On Tuesday afternoon, the appeals court put the earlier order from their three colleagues back in place.

Judge Eric Miller, joined by Judge Mark Bennett, said in a concurring decision that a district court does not "generally have the authority to enter an injunction prohibiting the Department of Justice from expressing its views about criminal statutes, even if the court determines that those views are incorrect." 

Five of the judges dissented and said that election workers must now choose whether to refuse to set aside ballots cast by alleged noncitizens or risk prosecution.

The secretaries of state of Michigan and New Mexico said they have received reports of Justice Department election monitors acting unlawfully. 

At two polling sites in Michigan, monitors allegedly asked poll workers for their training materials and unlawfully asked poll monitors questions, according to Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's office. In New Mexico, monitors asked voters "some unusual questions," a spokesperson for New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver told CBS News. 

Both offices said they have received assurances by the Justice Department that their concerns would be addressed.

In regards to Michigan, a Justice Department spokesperson said that the monitors "asked their typical questions about election official training," and said the questions are "the same questions asked by monitors in the past, including during the previous administration."

In New Mexico, the DOJ spokesperson said that the department had a "productive call" with Oliver's office and "believe[s] the issue is resolved and will not affect our ongoing monitoring for the rest of the day."

Speaking to reporters outside the White House, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum was asked why the president chose to deliver his closing message on the eve of the midterms from the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. 

Burgum said the Reflecting Pool and the president's other renovation projects in Washington prove "Americans do not have to accept decline and squalor in our major cities."

"It's a role model for the country," Burgum said of Washington.

The interior secretary said he'll be watching Tuesday night's election results from the White House. 

Marc Elias, a longtime Democratic attorney and vocal opponent of the Trump administration, is a target in the Justice Department's criminal investigation into whether Democrats sought to confuse voters in Alaska by recruiting a candidate with the same name as Republican incumbent Sen. Dan Sullivan, according to a law enforcement official and a second source familiar with the matter.

Elias is just one of a number of individuals who received either target letters, preservation letters or grand jury subpoenas from the Justice Department in connection with the investigation, which is being led by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Alaska and also involves prosecutors from the Civil Rights Division's criminal section, multiple sources said. 

Approximately 20 target and preservation letters have been issued to date in the probe. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, meanwhile, has separately received a grand jury subpoena, a law enforcement source told CBS News. 

Read more here.

The Biddeford Police Department in Maine said it is investigating reported vandalism outside Sen. Susan Collins' office in the town, which is located south of Portland.

The department said it received a call for vandalism just before 11 p.m. Monday. 

"That matter is currently under investigation," the police department said.

Footage taken by the Biddeford Buzz, a local news outlet, showed the words "Blood on her hands" written in what appears to be red paint outside of Collins' office.

Federal prosecutors in Kansas unveiled a grand jury indictment charging a woman who works for the Postal Service with stealing thousands of pieces of mail, including nearly 400 political mailers supporting Republican candidates and committees.

Kelly Cram, from Baxter Springs, Kansas, faces one count of unlawful secretion, destruction and delay of mail, according to the indictment. 

The indictment said Postal Service investigators searched her home in early October and found 4,404 pieces of mail in her garage, including 394 "political mailers — all related to Republican candidates or Republican Party affiliated political action committees."

"The agents found no political mail related to candidates of any other political party or any political action committees affiliated with another political party at Cram's residence," the indictment said.

Court records did not list an attorney for Cram.

GOP Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who is facing off against Democrat Troy Jackson, told CBS News at an event in Houlton, Maine, that she was not concerned about polls that show her trailing in the race.

"Well, first of all, as you may recall, six years ago, all the polls were wrong. Literally all of them. They showed me losing, and I ended up winning by nine points in a state that President Joe Biden carried by nine points," Collins said. "The latest poll I saw last night from Emerson College actually had me up by two points." 

She added: "The only poll that counts is the one on Election Day."

After casting his ballot at an elementary school in Manchester, New Hampshire, this morning, Rep. Chris Pappas said it "feels like change is in the air in New Hampshire."

The Democratic candidate for Senate said "voters are ready for this election to happen."

"Voters are turning out. Democracy is in action today, and I think people are going to choose a different course for our country, and this is a positive thing, you know, we can have the power in our hands," Pappas said.

The New York State Board of Elections said in a statement on X that problems with voting machines in Westchester County stemmed from a late programming change to a race in one municipality that was never loaded onto Election Day machines elsewhere in the county.

"A change affecting a contest in one municipality required updated election programming, which was subsequently tested and deployed for early voting and for Election Day machines in that municipality," the board said. "However, Election Day machines elsewhere in the county continued to use the original programming and therefore could not recognize and accept the ballots being used for Election Day."

The board said that voting is being conducted "through established emergency ballot procedures" and it is working with the Westchester County Board of Elections with the goal of "restor[ing] scanning capability to at least one voting machine at every polling location, with additional machines being brought online as the day progresses."

"Importantly, the affected scanners rejected ballots they could not properly recognize rather than incorrectly tabulating them," the statement said. "Every valid vote will be counted, and the established canvass, recanvass, and post-election audit procedures will remain in place. Accuracy will never be sacrificed for speed."

An Oklahoma man faces federal charges after allegedly sending hundreds of letters containing white powder to public officials and media outlets ahead of both the 2024 and 2026 elections. 

According to charging documents unsealed on Tuesday, Robin Patrick Martin allegedly sent more than 700 envelopes to public officials of both parties across the country. Authorities said the powder contained in the envelopes was nontoxic and said the envelopes had messages written in UV-reactive ink, not easily seen by the naked eye. 

Martin is charged with one count of conveying false or misleading information and hoaxes and another count of mailing threatening communications. It wasn't immediately clear whether Martin had been taken into custody.

According to an FBI affidavit, Martin "described perceived issues with the 2020 election, claimed that President Donald Trump won the 2020 election, and voiced concerns regarding some of the same issues recurring in the then-upcoming 2024 election."

Read more here.

Michigan Republican Senate candidate Mike Rogers, who is facing off against Democrat Abdul El-Sayed, cast his ballot on Tuesday morning, saying he felt "really good about where we are today."

Over the weekend, Rogers received a last-minute endorsement from Democrat Haley Stevens, whom El-Sayed narrowly defeated in the primary. Rogers on Tuesday said that Stevens "ought to celebrate her courage," claiming that other Democrats have agreed El-Sayed is too "extreme." 

Fulton County officials say there are two separate ballot machine issues affecting two polling locations and roughly 1,000 early-voting ballots. 

There have been persistent paper jams at one location, and another location is having a power issue that has raised concerns about data corruption. 

Fulton County initially said it would ask its election board to formally adopt modified tabulation procedures this evening but soon afterward said in an updated statement that it would ask the election board to rescan the affected ballots in public view this evening. 

The county is proposing transferring machine memory cards or rescanning the physical ballots on a central scanner. 

Officials will discuss this at a meeting at 6:30 p.m. Once approved, the ballots are expected to be counted this evening between 7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. 

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said he doesn't expect these issues to delay any results. 

Democrat Josh Turek cast his ballot in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Tuesday morning, and told CBS News that he's feeling "great" as Iowans head to the polls on Election Day. He's running against GOP Rep. Ashley Hinson for the Senate seat that Joni Ernst is vacating.

"I feel great in the same way that I think I felt with basketball. The confidence comes from the preparation," Turek said. "And for 450 days, worked as absolutely as hard as I could to put my heart and my soul into this."

Turek billed the contest as a "real clear choice" between him and Hinson, pledging to fight for Iowans. Throughout the campaign, he's worked to tie her to corruption issues, and pointed to her getting wealthy in office. But Hinson has been clear that she does not trade stocks and has denied Turek's claims that her husband is operating as a "shadow lobbyist." 

PolitiFact noted that the source of Hinson's wealth is her husband Matt Arenholz's stake in Highstreet Insurance Partners. He sold his insurance agency to the private-equity-backed company and received a stake in Highstreet following the sale.

Still, Turek pitched himself as someone more aligned with the Hawkeye State, where he said, "Too many people here in Iowa are hurting and struggling."

Turek also says he's willing to work across the aisle, and he told reporters that he voted for some Republican candidates on Tuesday. He said he will spend the rest of the day talking to as many people as he can, noting that he's "a little superstitious" after winning his first election — for a seat in the statehouse — by just six votes.

"I worked all the way until polls closed. I still brought a handful of people to the polls at the end. And so, just work until the last minute," he said. "But I feel good and I feel confident. I think Iowans and the country is ready for change and I think it's a real clear contrast between myself and Ashley Hinson."

House Speaker Mike Johnson's closing message on the eve of Election Day is that the "polls are wrong." 

With the optimistic outlook he's espoused throughout the campaign season, he said, "It feels like 2024 to me when we swept the table and we won the White House, the Senate and the House. That's what's going on. The polls are wrong."

Johnson joined former Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin at a campaign stop for Rep. Jen Kiggans at a rally in Virginia's 2nd Congressional District in the Virginia Beach area on Monday night. 

"We are going to shock the world," Johnson said, and added, "We're going to win these races, okay?"

He told voters that he expected that control of the House "is going to come down to the outcome of about 21 House seats." 

He urged voters to turn out, reminding the crowd that "especially in a race like this one, it's going to be thin margins." Johnson also noted that "we won 10 races last cycle in 2024 by 6,000 votes or less."

More than 886,000 Minnesotans have voted early in this year's midterm election, the highest number of early votes ever cast in a midterm in the state, according to the secretary of state's office.

The office was reporting that total as of Monday morning. Its count of 886,427 early ballots through Sunday topped the 2022 midterm record of 687,062. The previous record was broken days ago, but the enthusiasm hasn't dropped.

Nearly 69,000 people had voted early in Minneapolis. The city set a record for early voting in a non-presidential election year when it had accepted 52,661 early and absentee ballots as of Oct. 28, CBS News Minnesota reported Thursday. The city's elections director had said earlier that week that early voting sites were bustling.

Read more at CBS News Minnesota. 

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Jackson voted in person Tuesday in Forsyth County, saying the experience reinforced his confidence in Georgia's voting system.

"It makes you feel very comfortable in the integrity of our voting system," Jackson said.

Jackson said he had voted absentee in recent elections but wanted to cast his ballot in person while running for governor. He estimated 15 to 20 people were in line and praised workers for their efficiency and professionalism.

"I feel like I've done all I can do. I'm leaving it up to God," Jackson said. "Whatever happens, my purpose in life is for kingdom impact and to help the least of us. No matter what happens, that's what I'll be doing tomorrow."

Read more at CBS News Atlanta. 

The Board of Legislators in New York's Westchester County said Tuesday that "every eligible vote will be counted" despite an ongoing issue with ballot scanners.

The Board of Legislators said that while the issue is being resolved, voters should continue to cast their ballots as instructed and ballots that cannot be scanned will be "securely collected and counted in accordance with election procedures."

Attorney General Letitia James posted on social media that her office is monitoring the issue.

Parts of Westchester County are in the battleground 17th U.S. House District, where incumbent Republican Rep. Mike Lawler faces Democrat Cait Conley. Both candidates urged voters to stay in line and cast their ballots.

House Administration Committee Republicans said they have official "election observers" on the ground gathering information in Westchester County.

 By 7 a.m. Tuesday, 32.9% of Michigan's active registered voters had already cast ballots, according to state data, as Election Day began.

That includes 750,469 people who voted early in person this election. The remaining votes will come from people voting on Election Day and from absentee ballots turned in late.

In the 2024 presidential election, more than 1.2 million people voted early in person.

Voters are deciding the race for governor between Democrat Jocelyn Benson and Republican John James, and an open U.S. Senate seat, where Democrat Abdul El-Sayed faces Republican Mike Rogers. Both pairs won their party primaries in August.

Read more at CBS News Detroit. 

Control of the House and Senate may not be immediately clear on election night, and some of the 2026 midterm election calls will take longer than others. But that's not unusual or an indication of fraud, as some candidates may claim.

As the nation watches to see how the elections unfold on Tuesday night, election experts advise voters against listening to politicians who cry foul without offering evidence of fraud as ballots are being cast or counted. Many key races will be close. And when they're close, the results are likely to come later. 

David Becker, executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation & Research and a CBS News contributor, says he has some doubts about whether Americans will even know who controls the House or Senate on election night. 

"If we do, then there's a very big wave going on," Becker said.

Read more here. 

An extreme rainfall event in parts of Florida could impact voting on Tuesday, as what's known as a "1,000-year" incident brings flooding to areas along the state's southwestern coast. 

In St. Lucie County, about an hour or so north of Palm Beach by car, the supervisor of elections announced changes to the county's polling places on Monday afternoon, as a result of flooded roads.

"Due to inclement weather and flooding that has affected road access to certain polling locations, the following precincts have been temporarily relocated to ensure voters have safe and accessible locations to cast their ballots," the elections supervisor said, adding that staff would continue evaluating sites to determine whether they're "functional" or not.

More rain is expected to fall in sections of Florida already affected by inclement weather, including St. Lucie County, through Wednesday, forecasters said. According to the National Weather Service in Melbourne, Florida, a "1,000-year" rainfall event "means there is a 0.1% chance of rainfall of this magnitude occurring in any given year — not that it can only happen once every 1,000 years."

"This exceptionally rare event underscores the importance of flood preparedness and flood insurance, even in areas outside designated high-risk flood zones," the weather service said.

Voting machines at most polling sites in Westchester County, north of New York City, are not accepting ballots due to an issue with the scanners, according to the county executive.

The scanners started experiencing problems when the polls opened at 6 a.m. Tuesday. 

Voters are being instructed to stay in line and fill out a paper ballot, which will be put into a secure box. Officials stressed that every ballot will be counted.

Both candidates in the district's hotly contested House race, Republican incumbent Rep. Mike Lawler and Democrat Cait Conley, urged voters to stay in line and cast their ballots.

County Executive Ken Jenkins said there is no word as to when the problem will be fixed. The New York State Board of Elections is working with county officials to handle the situation. 

Read more at CBS News New York. 

The Department of Justice issued a release early Tuesday saying that for the first time, it will be deploying approximately 1,000 election monitors and observers to all 50 states. 

According to the release from the Justice Department, the election monitors will be checking for compliance with the federal voting rights statutes that fall within their jurisdiction, which include federal statutes that protect the right to vote, including the Voting Rights Act, National Voter Registration Act, Help America Vote Act, Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, and Civil Rights Acts.

In a statement, Harmeet Dhillon, the assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, said she is "very proud we are deploying the largest monitoring effort in DOJ history, and pursuing transparency for elections in an assertive and nondiscriminatory manner."

As polls are starting to open in the U.S. early Tuesday, President Trump piled more criticism onto Democratic Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, accusing him of hating Jewish, Black and White people.

"Abdul El-Sayed Hates Jews and Hates Blacks. Don't feel bad, he also Hates Whites," Mr. Trump claimed in a post on his Truth Social platform.

The president said "only fools" would vote for El-Sayed, whom he claimed would "100% do you in!"

The battle for the U.S. Senate seat in Michigan, between El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers, which could prove decisive in the race to control the Senate, has been contentious. A late surprise endorsement by Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens of Rogers over her own Democratic colleague last week shook up the race. According to Stevens' House colleague Rep. Debbie Dingell, however, it is having the opposite effect of what Stevens intended, "galvanizing many communities" behind El-Sayed.

The shocking cross-party endorsement over the weekend that shook up Michigan's Senate race featured heavily in Republican Mike Rogers' final speech Monday night before Election Day — while Democrat Abdul El-Sayed steered clear of the topic in his own Detroit rally.

Rogers spent much of his speech highlighting Democrats who have switched over to his side, including Rep. Haley Stevens, who withdrew her endorsement of El-Sayed over the weekend. 

"Our Sunday … wasn't really planned to look like it was," Rogers told supporters. "But someone else had enough courage to believe that that was more important than party."

Stevens, for her part, addressed the decision in a lengthy social media post late Monday, calling it a "decision of conscience" that she made after deciding El-Sayed was "not fit to serve." She pointed to El-Sayed's decision to disinvite her from campaign events, and their public dayslong rift over the Democratic nominee and his allies' vehement criticism of U.S. aid to Israel.

Stevens' decision outraged many Democrats. But El-Sayed made no mention of the situation in his remarks on Monday, instead focusing on his campaign's core message.

He said that "it shouldn't be this hard" to "afford a tank of gas," to "buy a second bag of groceries" or to "pay your taxes and know that that money is going to be spent on you and your kids instead of dropping bombs on somebody else and their kids."

He called his campaign a "bet on the goodness of the people of the state of Michigan."

In dueling rallies the night before Election Day, the candidates for Texas' Senate seat expressed optimism about one of the closest — and most expensive — races of 2026.

Speaking to supporters at a restaurant in Allen, Texas, Republican Ken Paxton noted that most polls show the race is "going to come down to the wire." 

Paxton highlighted Democrat James Talarico's partisan loyalties, noting the race could decide which party controls the Senate. He accused Talarico of being a tax-and-spend progressive and — fighting words for Texas — a vegan. He told the crowd: "Texas has never been this close to slipping away."

"I'm not asking you to imagine what I'd do as your U.S. senator. I'm asking you to look at my record, look at what we've already accomplished and then compare that to James Talarico," Paxton said.

At his own concert-style rally in Austin, Talarico predicted that "we are going to shock the nation." His speech was riddled with references to the TV show "Friday Night Lights" and its come-from-behind storylines — nodding to the fact that no Democrat has won statewide in Texas in decades.

Talarico railed against "corrupt tariffs," the "corrupt war in the Middle East" and the hundreds of millions of dollars that Elon Musk has poured into the race to aid Paxton.

"We have an affordability crisis because we have a corruption crisis," he said, calling Paxton "the embodiment of this corrupt system."

In his final rally before Election Day, Democratic pastor Adam Hamilton acknowledged that his bid to represent Kansas in the Senate hinges on the state's voters making a history-defying decision.

"The last time a Democrat was elected from Kansas to the United States Senate, Amelia Earhart flew across the Atlantic Ocean for the very first time," he said at an event next door to Church of the Resurrection, the large Methodist church outside Kansas City that he has led for decades.

To defeat Republican Sen. Roger Marshall, Hamilton will need to win over an electorate that backed President Trump by double-digit margins in all three of his presidential runs. He leaned hard into bipartisanship during Monday's rally.

"If I get elected tomorrow night, I'm going to become Jerry Moran's best friend," he said, referring to the state's other Republican senator. "Because I want to model from Kansas for the rest of our country: This is what it looks like when a Republican and Democrat work together. I'm going to work the Democratic side of the aisle. He's going to work the Republican side of the aisle, and we're going to get things done."

His speech focused on the cost of living, healthcare and "decency."

"We've got a lot of people who've lost their freaking minds. They are no longer asking questions like, 'Is this right? Is it decent? Is this good? Is it moral?'" he said.

CBS News spoke to Hamilton supporter Cherri Shannon, who said she and her husband have knocked on doors for about four hours every Saturday for the last few weeks.

"My husband and I sat and complained about politics for a long time," she said. "And finally, I looked at him. I said, 'We got to get off the couch. We got to go do something.'"

President Trump will be monitoring election night from the White House, an administration official said. 

Mr. Trump held several telerallies on Monday and gave remarks at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. 

"We gave this a very strong shot," Mr. Trump said Monday. 

The Supreme Court on Monday turned down a last-ditch effort from the Trump administration to require California to separate mail ballots received from thousands of people that it claims are "likely" not U.S. citizens.

The court said in a one line, unsigned order that it was denying the Justice Department's request for an injunction requiring election officials from California to set aside the ballots from 20,000 alleged noncitizens. There were no noted dissents. 

The Justice Department sought the Supreme Court's intervention earlier in the day after a divided federal appeals court refused to order California election workers to set aside mail ballots cast by people on a government list.

Read more here.

Democratic Rep. Debbie Dingell of Michigan said Rep. Haley Stevens' stunning endorsement of GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers over Democrat Abdul El-Sayed is having the opposite effect of what Stevens intended. 

"You're seeing a backlash," Dingell said in an interview on "The Takeout with Major Garrett" on Monday. "It's galvanizing many communities." 

El-Sayed's campaign says it raised more than $2.4 million on Sunday, the same day that Stevens — his former Democratic primary rival — came out in support of Rogers. 

"I've had Black pastors talk to me and say, 'Who said she represented us?' There's a lot of anger in how she did what she did yesterday," Dingell said. 

The endorsement came after days of hostility between El-Sayed and Stevens, who were expected to appear together on Sunday before tensions boiled over. 

Read more here and watch Major Garrett's full interview with Rep. Dingell here. 

President Trump wrapped up his monthlong blitz of campaign appearances with remarks Monday at the Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. 

"With your vote, we will decide these extremists will be given power or not power," Mr. Trump said. "We'll either keep America strong — I think we're having, this is the golden age of America. We've never done anything like it."

Mr. Trump said all the records he's made won't matter "if we're going to be foolish and let people who hate our country win an election."

The president acknowledged that a sitting president's party often loses in the midterms. 

"For some reason, the sitting president doesn't win the midterms," the president said. "But we gave this a very strong shot."

Alaska's Senate race has garnered widespread attention amid scrutiny over the presence of a candidate bearing nearly the same name as the sitting Republican senator, Dan Sullivan. The New York Times reported members of Democrat Mary Peltola's campaign recruited Daniel J. Sullivan, a teacher, to join the race, but she said she knew nothing about it.

The winner will be decided under the state's system of ranked choice voting, which was first implemented in 2022.

The top four candidates from the primary are listed on the ballot. Ranked choice voting allows voters to rank as many or as few candidates as they'd like in order of preference, rather than selecting a single candidate on the ballot. 

If nobody wins an outright majority in the first tally, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and their supporters' votes are redistributed to each voter's second choice. That process continues until one candidate wins more than 50%.

Read more here.

Two years ago, President Trump made historic gains with Hispanic voters nationwide and won a majority of Texas Hispanics, upending conventional wisdom.

But now, Democrats see signs that Hispanics could shift back, pointing to widespread frustration with the state of the economy and immigration enforcement, and Mr. Trump's sagging approval ratings.

Hispanics make up more than 30% of Texas' eligible electorate, making them a key constituency in the state's Senate, gubernatorial and House races. Polls show a tight contest between Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico and Republican Ken Paxton, and GOP Gov. Greg Abbott's reelection bid against Democrat Gina Hinojosa could be close, too.

"There's a Hispanic hurricane coming," predicted Democratic strategist and CBS News political contributor Chuck Rocha, who advises Talarico and Hinojosa's campaigns. "We just don't know quite yet if it's going to be Category 2 or Category 5, but it's washing ashore right in front of the GOP, and they don't know what to do about it."

But Republicans say enthusiasm for Democrats is still muted.

"I think most voters couldn't tell you what the Democrat plan is for bringing down prices," said Daniel Garza, president of the conservative LIBRE Initiative.

In one competitive House race in South Texas, both candidates expressed concerns to CBS News about the Trump administration's immigration tactics.

The Democratic candidate, Tejano music star Bobby Pulido, said "there's chaos in the streets" due to "aggressive ICE enforcement."

Incumbent GOP Rep. Monica De La Cruz predicted that Texas will remain red. "But I do think that it's a wake-up call for Republicans to remain focused on affordability, and to come to a solution when it comes to immigration," she said.

Read more here.

Control of the House of Representatives will come down to a number of battleground seats. CBS News has identified 47 House districts that will likely determine which party will have the majority.

Of those seats, 20 are currently held by Democrats and 27 are held by Republicans. Republicans currently hold a razor-thin majority, with 218 seats, plus an independent who normally caucuses with them. Democrats hold 214 seats. There are two vacancies.

CBS News' Battleground Tracker model estimated on Oct. 25 that Democrats are on track to take control of the House with 229 seats. There is still a path for the GOP to keep the House: The Battleground Tracker's estimates ranged from 215 Democratic seats — which would give Republicans a narrow majority — to 237 seats.

On the Senate side, CBS News has identified 11 key races that could determine control of the Senate.

Eight of those seats are currently held by Republicans: Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas.

The other three are held by Democrats: Georgia, Michigan and New Hampshire.

Republicans currently hold 53 Senate seats to the Democrats' 47. 

Sen. Susan Collins is being challenged by Democrat Troy Jackson. Voters in Maine know their decision could impact the rest of the country. 

Norm Belanger said for him, it's about having "a balance of power and the checks and balances can hopefully once again work to make sure no one branch of government takes control, I think it's important."

Belanger said he and his wife Elizabeth typically vote for a person over a party. 

"Troy Jackson doesn't excite me. He would not have been my choice for the Democratic candidate," Belanger said. "On the other hand, I think he's the best choice of the two."

Another voter in Kittery said, "There's no white knight here in either party," adding, "Who I end up voting for, is going to be who I think is going to be the least damaging."

Read more from CBS News Boston here. 

CBS News will have extensive live coverage throughout the day, with election results and analysis on all platforms after the polls close Tuesday evening.

• What: Election coverage and results of the 2026 midterms
• Date: Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026  
• Time:
      - All day live coverage streaming on CBS News 24/7
      - 5 p.m. ET:  "Election 2026: The Nerd Show" on CBS News 24/7
      - 7 p.m. ET:  "America Decides: Election 2026," on TV, cable and streaming
• On TV: CBS television stations (find your local station here)
• Online stream: Live on CBS News in the video player above and on your mobile or streaming device 

Beginning at 5 p.m. ET, dive into the latest data on "Election 2026: The Nerd Show," hosted by CBS News executive director of elections and surveys Anthony Salvanto and CBS News congressional correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns, joined by Democratic and Republican pollsters and other election data experts.

At 7 p.m. ET, CBS News prime-time special, "America Decides: Election 2026," covers the latest election results as polls close around the country, anchored by Tony Dokoupil and  Norah O'Donnell, with "CBS Mornings" co-host Gayle King, "Face the Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan, and a team of correspondents and political analysts around the country.

Watch on the free CBS News app on your connected TV or smartphone, on Paramount+, and all platforms where CBS News 24/7 is available, including CBSNews.com and YouTube.