Voter turnout surges past 2022 levels
Voter turnout has surged in the lead up to this year’s midterm election, with the number of early ballots cast significantly outstripping the totals from the 2022 midterm.
Elections workers across the country were expecting that trend to continued into election day. Officials in states including North Carolina, Georgia, and Michigan — a major battleground – reported strong turnout in the opening hours of voting.
By the afternoon, Florida’s Division of Elections reported more than 1,860,000 votes had been cast on election day.
Georgia’s secretary of state Brad Raffensperger said 775,000 votes had been cast, with an expected total turnout of 1.4 million votes by the close of polling.
Key events
José Olivares
in Minneapolis, Minnesota
A voter from Saint Paul, Minnesota came to Minneapolis to leave his “I Voted” sticker at Renée Good’s memorial site today.
Good was killed by a federal immigration official earlier this year during the Trump administration’s mass immigration enforcement operation in the region.
“I felt like my vote felt a little bit more in touch with some of the things that happened earlier this year in the city,” Mike F. told the Guardian at Renee Good’s memorial site. “So I felt like it was just the right thing to do — to come pay some respects and attach my vote to what happened here.”
Voters in Minneapolis have been leaving their “I Voted” stickers at memorial sites today after participating in the midterm elections. Voters also left stickers at the Alex Pretti memorial.
Good and Pretti, both US citizens, were shot and killed by immigration officials in January.
Voters across the country have been casting their ballots in the midterm elections that are widely seen as a verdict on the second Trump administration.
Mike F, at Good’s memorial site, agrees, adding that these midterm elections also speak to the decisions under the first Trump administration.
“I felt like voting in a midterm election helps send the message that maybe what was voted on was definitely not the right direction — and we don’t have to stick with it,” he added.
Good’s family recently filed two federal lawsuits against the US government.
Ed Pilkington
in Anchorage, Alaska
I’ve come to Mountain View, one of the most diverse and low-income neighborhoods of Anchorage, Alaska’s most populated city. Though it is far flung, with a time zone four hours behind Washington DC, this vast state may determine future control of the US Senate.
The voters I have just spoken to certainly affirm the diversity of this community. Rita Forbes, 80, was telling me why in her view it is important that the Republicans continue to manage Congress when she let out this little fact: she spent eight years flying helicopters in the Vietnam war.
Turns out that this slight, grey-haired woman, who uses a walking frame, was one of the first women on the front lines of Vietnam. She distributed Agent Orange to troop locations, she told me. One time her helicopter was shot down. “I broke every bone in my body, they had to piece me back together.”
She doesn’t like moves by Pete Hegseth, Trump’s defense secretary, to discourage women from frontline positions. “We showed that we could learn the job and do it. We can take a bullet like everybody else.”
Despite all that, she still supports the Republicans, and voted today on straight party lines. “I’m an old Republican,” she said. “My place is on the backline now, not on the frontline.”
Next up came Michael Comer, 40, a bouncer, bartender and comedian. His take on the election was quite the contrast, having voted for Mary Peltola, the Democratic candidate in the vitally important US senate race.
“I’m gay. If these mid-terms swing the wrong way then my wife, who is trans, will have even less rights and could be in danger,” he said.
He sees 2026 as a tipping point. “We are on the edge right now. If Trump wins again it will validate all that hatred.”
My last interlocutor is an African American Alaskan, Tenesha Williams, 41. She also voted Democratic.
She works in a school for low-income kids, many of whom have migrant backgrounds. She has witnessed the fear sweeping through her classrooms.
We’re in dark times and it’s easy to lose hope. That’s why we vote. I don’t only vote for me, I try to look out for other people. Everyone deserves rights and choices.
The US justice department sent a last-minute surge of election monitors into Los Angeles this morning, the LA Times (paywall) reports, amid an ongoing legal back-and-forth with the Trump administration over California’s 20,000 contested ballots.
The Golden State and the Trump administration have been in a legal standoff over the past few weeks following the DoJ’s claim that 20,000 non-citizens were on the state’s voter rolls.
The administration’s demands to set aside the contested ballots were struck down by the supreme court on Monday, but in a series of rulings later last night and earlier today, the San Francisco-based 9th circuit court of appeals cleared the administration to threaten state election workers with criminal charges.
That came just after the justice department announced it was sending out “1,000 election monitors and observers” across the United States in what it described as “the largest monitoring effort in DoJ history” – in a move widely viewed as an intimidation tactic.
Richard Luscombe
in Fort Lauderdale, Florida
There was no school on Tuesday for 10-year-old Lily Ferguson, but she still received an Election Day civics lesson from her grandmother Robin Pace as she accompanied her to the polls in Coral Springs, Florida.
Lily is a student at Ramblewood elementary school, in use on Tuesday as a polling site where a steady stream of voters had passed through by early lunchtime.
“I was telling her in the car on the way here that when she’s 18, she can vote too,” Pace said.” I think the younger generation needs to be more engaged. A lot of them have no clue what they’re voting for, half of them don’t study, read, or watch the news.”
Pace didn’t say who she was voting for and considers participation in democracy to the fullest extent critical for the country’s future. Younger voters, she says, are too easily swayed.
“They just hear someone tell them to vote Democrat, and for everything that’s Democrat, or it could be Republican, and they don’t really research what you’re actually voting for. They hear, ‘Oh, he’s gonna do this for us’, but guess what? Anybody can say anything on TV. They still have to go through Congress and the whole nine yards to get anything approved.”
Other Florida voters who spoke with the Guardian expressed similar sentiments. Hetty Dubois, 20, a first-time voter from Tamarac, said she tuned out a tsunami of television adverts from candidates from both parties.
“All they do is attack each other, you never hear what they actually stand for, it’s what the other one doesn’t,” said Dubois, a shop assistant who voted before work at her city’s multi-purpose center. “I voted on the information I found out myself.”
Dubois said she voted Democratic “all the way down the ticket” largely because of the economy, and Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
“I have friends whose family members won’t go out much because they worry about being detained. Is that how they have to live now?” she said.
Meanwhile, Coral Springs residents Orlando and Irene Roman said they also based their vote on the national picture, but voted Republican. “We’re conservative, we vote for the policies, not the party,” Orlando Roman said.
He added that he always voted in person on election day and would not trust his vote to a mail-in ballot.
If you’re just joining us, Americans are voting today in the midterm elections, which will decide whether Republicans retain control of the House and Senate. A Democratic victory in either chamber would significantly constrain Donald Trump’s ability to advance his domestic agenda. Even if Republicans retain one or both chambers, a reduced majority could make passing legislation more difficult, and could pave the way for Democrats to launch investigations into the administration.
My video colleagues have this report:
Technical issues reported across several Mississippi counties
Adria R Walker
in Mississippi
People across the Magnolia State have experienced issues with voting, according to Mississippi Voters Action Fund [Msvaf], which supports voting in the state.
Lily Moens, policy and research director at Msvaf, said that the team received reports from Jackson county, on the Gulf Coast; Hinds county, in central Mississippi and DeSoto county, one of the northernmost counties in the state, along with other counties. Jackson county, which has received international scrutiny since Nolan Wells, a Black teenager, disappeared and died there, reported the largest number of incidents.
“There were a lot of reports coming from Jackson county that all of the machines were down,” she said. “We were told that, at at least one location, it was an internet connectivity issue.”
In a midday statement, the Mississippi secretary of state’s office said they are “experiencing high call volume on the Elections Hotline.” The office received reports of late-opening precinct; voting machines being temporarily down; state agency websites experiencing accessibility issues; and voters verifying registration status.
Debbie Price said that she arrived to vote at the civic center in Ocean Springs, which is in Jackson county, about twenty minutes after the polls opened. There was already a long line. Eventually, a poll worker told those gathered that the voting machines weren’t working and that there were no paper ballots available. People who wanted to vote would have to wait until the ballots were delivered.
“Everyone was waiting and, of course, people were leaving because those are people that vote early to go to work,” Price told the Guardian. She said that she saw about 25 to 30 people leave. “I didn’t vote until 45 minutes later.”
Though the civic center serves many voters in the coastal city, Price said that there were only two voting machines available when she finally made it in to vote. One of the machines kept breaking down. Price said that she received text messages from voters at four different locations who were experiencing similar issues.
“It was horrible,” she said. “There was no preparation, they didn’t know what they were doing. It was very discouraging.”
Kelly Jacobs, who lives in DeSoto County, was driving to a voting precinct to ascertain whether or not reports that the precinct had run out of ballots were true when she spoke to the Guardian. When she arrived there, a precinct manager told her that they opened on time, but ran out of pre-printed ballots. They were told that they would not receive any more, but that voters could use blank ballots.
By then, Jacobs, who is chair of Indivisible Desoto county, had been to two other precincts. One, she said, opened an hour late and still ran out of ballots by 10am. When she made it to that precinct, at 10:35, they had resolved the ballots, but were dealing with a very long line. A different polling precinct was also out of ballots early on.
“This is business as usual for the Republicans,” Jacobs said. “This is how they cheat at voting. There’s no penalty for running out of ballots. We saw that for the gubernatorial election … In my opinion, we don’t have a system that is set up in favor of voters. This is not the first time that DeSoto county has run out of ballots.”
Lex McMenamin
in Durham, New Hampshire
Halfway through Voting Day on the campus of the University of New Hampshire, many students wore “I voted” stickers on their hoodies and t-shirts as they scurried between classes.
In a state with one of the nation’s oldest overall populations – and despite a recent supreme court ruling making it more difficult for New Hampshire college students to vote – hundreds of students dropped by the multiple on-campus areas to catch a ride to go vote.
One “ride to the polls” program was from the New Hampshire Youth Movement, a grassroots organization launched during the 2016 election cycle. Organizers handed out Dunkin Donuts in hopes of luring in students, some of whom averted their eyes while trying not to hear the volunteers asking them, “Hey, have you voted yet today?”
At the NHYM tent, two volunteers calling out to potential voter passerby were there in part because they themselves weren’t old enough to exercise their voices through voting. Local high school students Maddie Denham and Viola Landry, both 16, were motivated to get involved in politics while watching the struggles of their trans friends and classmates; New Hampshire has passed anti-trans legislation targeting youth in recent years.
“One of my big fears is that there’s going to be more legislation that’s targeting trans youth, and trans and queer people in general,” said Denham. She said she had previously met current Republican governor Kelly Ayotte, up for re-election, and was distrustful of her.
Voting age or not, the impacts of Trump administration policies have been felt inside their school, whether that’s the economy – Landry immediately brought up gas prices – or vitriolic political rhetoric.
“Because of how diverse our school is, there’s a lot of differing political opinions. And it feels very unsafe for some people at our school sometimes,” Denham said, mentioning that fights broke out in school after the death of Charlie Kirk. A few months ago, a classmate of Landry and Denham’s threatened to call Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on another classmate.
And though they can’t vote today, they’ll be old enough to do so in 2028. “For most of our lives, Trump has been president,” said Denham. “I personally want to see a change, and not what’s been happening.”
While the New Hampshire Youth Movement is providing rides to the polls on four campuses today, Kirk’s organization, Turning Point USA, has had a heavy presence today both on campuses as well as at New Hampshire voting locations.
The young people manning their tents handed out sandwiches to potential voters, with signs telling voters to vote “red” all down the ballot propped up on their tables.
The organization appears to have plunged significant resources into the state amid the heated race between Republican John Sununu and Democrat Chris Pappas for New Hampshire’s open Senate seat. At one polling place in Manchester, multiple elderly voters were dropped off by Turning Point USA’s rides to the polls program.
Technical issues with Florida county’s voting machines resolved, election officials say
Richard Luscombe
Election officials in Florida’s Broward county, the largest Democratic party stronghold in the state, say they have resolved issues with voting machines in a number of precincts that prevented early election day voters from casting their ballots.
Joe Scott, the county’s supervisor of elections, said in a statement that the technical problems, which became evident as soon as polling opened at 7am ET, were quickly ironed out.
“The system was telling them it was the wrong ballot when, in fact, it was not,” he said.
“Those people were not able to move forward until the problem was fixed, so nobody voted on the wrong ballot.
“The impact is that some people weren’t able to wait.”
Elsewhere in the county, one of many in Florida that experienced heavy overnight rainfall, a precinct had to be moved because of flooding.
By 3pm ET, more than half of Florida’s eligible 13.6 million voters (7.22 million) had cast a midterm ballot, state officials said, either in early voting that ended Sunday, or in person on election day.
In Tuesday voting, Republican voters outnumbered Democrats by almost half, 856,000 to 445,000, according to Florida Vote Tracker. In all votes cast, Republicans led 3.06 million to 2.5 million, with another 1.6 million independent or no party affiliated votes cast.
The figures, of course, reflect only the number of returned votes by affiliation so far, not who voters actually voted for.
David Smith
in Austin, Texas
Election day hopes are running high for Senate candidate James Talarico in Austin, the capital of Texas and the Democrat’s home city.
Regina Montoya, a lawyer wearing a “Talafreako” t-shirt, said: “He’s honest, he’s thoughtful, he’s going to make a difference for our country. He’s going to ensure that Texas has good education for its students, that we are able to have health care. He understands the issues of Texans.”
Addressing a potential shift among Latino voters who previously backed Donald Trump, Montoya, who is Latina, said: “I absolutely think it’s going to change because the issues of ICE, the deportation that has been occurring has been horrendous for so many people. It’s been so thoughtless. It has been so insensitive.”
She added: “People were told so many lies and they understand now that these were lies that were given to them and they’re not buying it anymore.”
Household economic pressure is also acting as a major catalyst for voters, according to Montoya, who pointed to petrol costs exceeding $4 per gallon and steep rises in essential food prices.
“The economy was supposed to improve. It did not improve for people. Paying over $4 a gallon for gas, going to the grocery storeand what used to cost $4 now is $8 and $9. People’s grocery bills are astronomical and it’s because of what has been happening in DC and because of what’s been happening and the state as well.
Texas has not elected a Democratic candidate to the US Senate since 1988. Asked what a victory would signify, Montoya said: “It’s going to be a brave new world and I’m excited about it. I’m excited about the opportunities.”
Alex Pretti’s memorial site adorned with “I Voted” stickers
José Olivares
in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Voters in Minneapolis have been leaving their “I Voted” stickers at the Alex Pretti memorial site after participating in Tuesday’s elections. Pretti, a US citizen and nurse, was shot and killed by federal immigration officials in January this year.
“I knew Alex Pretti,” said a retired physician in Minneapolis who worked with Pretti. “I just knew that he was a competent nurse — a really, really liked guy. And he was assassinated.”
The physician, Arne, who only gave his first name, left his “I Voted” sticker at the memorial site. Arne choked up when speaking about his vote, Pretti and when federal immigration officials killed him.
Pretti was killed by federal immigration officials during a large-scale immigration enforcement operation in the Minneapolis region this year, days after an immigration official in the city shot and killed another US citizen, Renee Good.
The midterm elections have been largely seen as a national verdict on the second Trump administration, including its immigration enforcement crackdown.
“The country has humiliated itself by putting in a bad man, a very very bad character,” Arne said of President Donald Trump. “Today is a chance for America to say whether they support this kind of thing.”
If they don’t oppose it, “then fuck America,” he added.
Gaya Gupta
in Lawrence, Kansas
Zachary Hijaz, 20, cast his ballot for the first time at the Checkers grocery store in Lawrence, KS, along with his roommate at the University of Kansas, Brendan Stanley, who turned 21 today.
“Felt amazing,” Hijaz said.
“It was fantastic being able to participate in democracy,” added Stanley.
Both cast their ballots for Adam Hamilton, who was Stanley’s pastor growing up. Though they had never formally met, Stanley viewed him as a “really kind” and “even-keeled guy,” and added that he wants to see a Democratic majority in the Senate
“He seems like he’s a good champion for the American people, and he has a lot of common interests that I think are just common sense ideas,” he said.
Both men said they have cars and neither were on meal plan at the University of Kansas, so they’ve both noticed the rising price of gas and groceries.
“Meat’s expensive,” said Stanley.
“Stuff’s overall expensive,” added Hijaz.
“I think it’s probably because of the fuel prices from the war. I think this is an unjust war,” Stanley continued.
Robert Tait
in Lewiston, Maine
Election monitors from the US Department of Justice spent several hours observing voting at a polling station in Lewiston where ballots were cast by the city’s sizeable immigrant population, including Somalis, a local official confirmed to the Guardian.
Armed police officers were also present inside and outside the polling station.
Two DoJ observers watched proceedings at the Memorial Armory polling station after quizzing local election wardens about their training, Steve Bannister, the senior warden at the center said.
The deployment followed reports of voter intimidation and suspected fraud during early voting last month, he added.
The Memorial Armory station is a venue for voters from Lewiston’s Somali, Angolan and Eritrean communities, according to local election chaplains, who were on duty outside.
Bannister said the justice department monitors were present for three hours. “They were not obtrusive,” he said. “They asked what training I got, where I got it from and asked the same of other wardens.
“From what I understand, it’s done at every election but this time it was more stated from the federal government that they were doing it.”
However, the deployment comes against a backdrop of Donald Trump’s allegations of widespread election fraud, which he has made repeatedly despite an absence of evidence.
It also followed Trump’s frequently bigoted and racist attacks on the US’s Somali community, which the US president has accused of rampant fraud. Federal agents raided the home of one of the community’s most prominent members, the Democratic Congress member Ilhan Omar last month amid allegations that her US citizenship was based on fraudulent paperwork submitted by her late father.
One chaplain observing outside the polling station, who declined to give his name, said he had never known DoJ observers to be sent to Lewiston in past elections.
Rachel Leingang
in Des Moines, Iowa
Charlyn Fordyce, a 65-year-old Democrat, voted at a polling place at a Presbyterian church in Des Moines on Tuesday. She came a long way – she lives part of the year in Scotland, on the Isle of Skye. Voting in person felt important this year, and she arrived on Monday to cast her ballot in time.
She said she was raised Republican but is now a Democrat. She voted for a slate of Iowa Democrats today, saying she believes the party has better policies that look out for everyone.
Immigration and schools were top issues for her. On immigration, she thinks there needs to be “compassion for people who come here to seek a better life”. And as a former teacher, she thinks school and childhood should be safe for children here.
I think it’s a very dangerous thing for a child to go to school in America.
Stacey, an independent voter at the Presbyterian church who didn’t want to share her full name, said she voted a straight ticket for Democrats, which isn’t the norm for her.
“I wanted to vote for no Republicans,” she said, citing “empty promises” and a “lack of common sense” from the party.
The economy, especially for young families, played into her vote, she said. The job market doesn’t seem great, and everything from gas to healthcare costs a lot.
She, like most Iowans, is ready for the campaign contact to end. “The best thing about today is the text messages will end, the mail will stop being wasted,” she said.
Westchester county official addresses voting machine malfunctions affecting up to 250,000 ballots
In New York state, Westchester county executive Kenneth Jenkins has told a news conference that voting machines have been unable to scan as many as 250,000 ballots in 332 polling locations across more than 40 of the county’s municipalities.
Jenkins stressed that people will still be able to vote, and would be directed to cast their vote on emergency ballots (via orange bags that will be counted later).
Let us be absolutely clear: every eligible vote will be counted. No voter should be discouraged from participating in this election because of this issue. Your voice matters and your vote matters. Please stay in line and vote.
Republican representative Mike Lawler, who is seeking re-election in New York’s 17th congressional district, reassured voters on social media: “Every ballot will be counted. Stay on line and vote.”
His challenger, Democrat Cait Conley, also urged voters: “Don’t be dissuaded and have your voice heard.”
The Westchester County Board of Elections said it was in communication with New York state officials and the Westchester county government “to address this issue and ensure that voting continues with as little disruption as possible”.
New York attorney general Letitia James also wrote on X that her office is monitoring the issue. “Westchester voters can still safely fill out and turn in their ballots at their polling locations. Your votes will count,” she said.
US territory of Guam is first to report election results
The first election results of the 2026 midterms have come in from Guam, the Pacific island territory across the International Date Line where America’s day – and its elections – officially begin.
The unofficial results published by the Guam Election Commission show that Republicans wrested away control of Guam’s governorship, with the GOP ticket headed by Vicente Ada. Democrats, meanwhile, flipped the state’s nonvoting delegate to Congress blue, as voters opted to send Democratic candidate Alicia Anne Garrido Limtiaco to Washington.
Donald Trump took to his personal social media platform to remark on the results, which he considered a strong showing for the Republicans.
“Guam, which has always been considered strongly Democrat, just had an early call for a REPUBLICAN Victory in the top spot, Governor — Congratulations to Tony Ada! Also, the Republicans have the Majority in the State Senate. Wow, hopefully that’s an indication for things to come!”
