USAupdated 1h ago2 min read
Americans Vote In 2026 Midterm Elections As Florida, Georgia, South Carolina Polls Close
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6 Western Mainstream2 Other1 Local WesternThis article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Polls close across key states as results determine control of House and Senate. 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats on ballot; governors in 39 states.
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Poll closings, Eastern Time
Americans vote to determine control of the Senate and House of Representatives in the 2026 midterm elections, and CNN frames the night around when polls close across the United States, with all times in Eastern Time.
Polls in most of Florida close at 7 p.m. ET, and in 2024 about 84% of the vote was reported by 8 p.m. when polls in the western part of the state closed.
Georgia’s counties report early and/or mail votes first, and in 2024 they had only 2% left to count at midnight ET.
South Carolina’s reporting in 2024 slowed after early results, with the state stopping reporting at around 3:20 a.m. ET Wednesday with about 2% of the vote left to count.
Maine does not centrally report votes on election night, and in 2024 it took until Wednesday afternoon for 90% of the vote to be reported.
Live coverage and anchors
Control of Congress and the future of President Trump's agenda are on the line in the 2026 midterm elections, with voters casting ballots for all 435 House seats and 35 Senate around the country.
Live updates will run throughout the evening from Anthony Salvanto and correspondents in Washington and around the country, including Weijia Jiang at the White House.
CBS News schedules its cable coverage under the banner "America Decides: Election 2026," with Tony Dokoupil and Norah O'Donnell anchoring and Gayle King, Margaret Brennan, and CBS News political reporters including Robert Costa, Major Garrett, Nancy Cordes and Ed O'Keefe.
CBS News sets a streaming schedule that begins at 5 p.m. ET for "Election 2026: The Nerd Show," hosted by Anthony Salvanto and CBS News congressional correspondent Caitlin Huey-Burns.
Vote counting will start Tuesday night but could go on for days or even weeks, and NPR links the extended timeline to tighter Senate margins and ranked choice voting.
What could decide control
EL PAÍS frames the stakes as Democrats leading Republicans by eight points in generic Congressional vote, and it says the margin is similar to 2018 when Democrats regained the House with 41 seats more.
The Senate races are so close that they fall within the margin of error, and it notes that in a 50-50 tie the U.S. vice president, J.D. Vance, would decide.
The entire House of Representatives (435 seats) and one third of the Senate (35 of the 100 Senators) are up for election on November 3, and it links the outcome to whether Republicans maintain control of both chambers.
Real Clear Politics’ poll average envisions a Senate outcome of 51 senators for Democrats and 49 for Republicans, while it also says Polymarket estimates a 71% probability that Democrats will flip the Senate.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told local news that new laws require counties to report results within an hour of polls closing, shaping how quickly viewers may see early Senate and gubernatorial signals.