WASHINGTON.- Polls opened across the United States on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, as Americans vote in midterm elections that will decide control of Congress for the second half of Donald Trump's presidency, with all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, 35 of the 100 Senate seats and 36 governorships on the ballot. The first polling stations opened in Vermont at 5 a.m. Eastern time, followed at 6 a.m. by New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Connecticut and Kentucky, after a record early vote of nearly 58.7 million ballots, according to the University of Florida Election Lab. Democrats enter Election Day leading the national congressional ballot, but the Senate in particular will be settled by a handful of close state races, not by the national numbers.
Voting hours vary by state: polls open between 6 and 7 a.m. in Georgia, Florida, Pennsylvania and New York, at 6:30 a.m. in Ohio and North Carolina, and at 7 a.m. in Michigan, among other local schedules. Democrats need a net gain of three House seats and four Senate seats to take Congress; Republicans start from a 218-214 House majority and a 53-47 Senate edge. The closest Senate contests are in Texas, Ohio, Michigan and Alaska, where Democrats led in the final New York Times/Siena polling, with Iowa effectively tied. In Michigan, Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers are locked in a closely watched race that has drawn national attention, including Islamophobic attacks against El-Sayed that Al Jazeera highlighted in its live coverage.
First results come Tuesday night, but close races may take days
The first polls close at 6 p.m. Eastern time in parts of Indiana and Kentucky, with most states closing between 7 and 9 p.m. Eastern, and Alaska the last to close at around 1 a.m. Eastern on Wednesday. The first results should start arriving Tuesday evening as polls close, though election officials warn that closely fought races may take hours or even days to call, because counting procedures differ by state and news organisations such as the Associated Press only call a race when the remaining vote cannot change the outcome. Early voting included 31.9 million ballots cast in person and 26.8 million submitted by mail, led by Texas with more than 7.7 million early votes, followed by Florida with more than 5.4 million and Georgia and North Carolina with 2.8 million each.
Read more on The Wire Post: Donald Trump Faces the Verdict as Americans Vote in the 2026 Midterms for Control of Congress and 58 Million Americans Already Voted Before Election Day as Donald Trump Faces the 2026 Midterm Verdict.
Fuentes: Al Jazeera (cobertura en vivo y horarios de votación), University of Florida Election Lab vía The Nation y Times Now, 3 de noviembre de 2026.