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US midterms: Millions of Americans to vote with Congress at stake US election: Republicans optimistic of House of Representatives win
(about 16 hours later)
Millions of Americans will vote in the midterm elections on Tuesday, with the balance of power in Congress at stake. Watch: The moments you have missed from around the US so far
The entire US House of Representatives, about a third of the Senate and key state governorships are up for grabs. Watch: The moments you have missed from around the US so far
President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and ex-President Donald Trump, a Republican, made their closing arguments in competing rallies. US Republicans are increasingly optimistic they will win the House of Representatives, as votes are counted from Tuesday's midterm elections.
Mr Biden's ability to pass laws will be stymied if Republicans take the House, as most projections expect. The BBC's US partner CBS News says the lower chamber of Congress is leaning towards the Republicans.
Democrats currently control the White House and - by razor-thin margins - both chambers of Congress. But the battle for the Senate is up in the air with key races still rated as toss-ups.
The party in power typically sheds an average of two dozen or so seats in the midterms, which fall midway through a president's four years in office. Though President Joe Biden is not on the ballot on Tuesday, the midterms will shape the fate of his agenda.
While Mr Biden himself is not up for re-election on Tuesday, midterms are often seen as a referendum on a president's leadership. Voting stations are closing in time zones across the US, with exit polls suggesting the main issues for voters were inflation and abortion.
Despite delivering on promises to lower prescription drug prices, expand clean energy and revamp US infrastructure, Mr Biden has seen his popularity suffer following the worst inflation in four decades, record illegal crossings at the US-Mexico border, and voter concerns about crime. Some 32% of voters cited rising prices as most important, while 27% rated abortion as their priority, according to the Edison research data.
The vote looms - so who will win Congress? The emphasis on abortion could buoy Democrats, who have used the issue to get out the vote.
All 435 seats in the House and a third of the Senate are up for grabs.
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Republicans have been widely expected to pick up the five seats they need to control the House.
Which party holds sway in the Senate is likely to come down to a handful of neck-and-neck races in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, and those results might not be known for days.
Despite delivering on promises to lower prescription drug prices, expand clean energy and revamp US infrastructure, Mr Biden's popularity has taken a pummelling amid the worst inflation in four decades.
But Republicans have their own political vulnerability on the issue of abortion following the conservative-dominated Supreme Court's decision this year to roll back a US constitutional right to the procedure.
Watch: Abortion will decide how I vote - here's why
Watch: Abortion will decide how I vote - here's why
The ruling triggered a swathe of restrictions on abortion in Republican-led states, energising liberal voters around the country and raising hopes among Democrats they might defy the historical political gravity that typically weighs on a governing party in the midterms.
Five US states held referendums about abortion on Tuesday, mostly to protect access to the procedure.
According to exit polls by the BBC's US partner CBS News, abortion was the top issue for Democratic voters, while Republicans and independents rated inflation as their top issue.
Nearly eight in 10 voters in the CBS exit poll said inflation had been a hardship for them, including about 20% who rated that hardship as severe.
Nearly half of voters said their financial situation was worse than it was two years ago - more than twice the number who thought it was better.
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A political thumping for Democrats on Tuesday could embolden murmurs within the party about whether Mr Biden, who turns 80 this month, should run for re-election in 2024.
He went to Maryland on Monday night to campaign for Wes Moore, who is expected to make history as the third black governor ever elected in the US.
Wes Moore (centre) looks set to become the third black governor ever elected in the US
"Today we face an inflection point," Mr Biden told a cheering crowd at a historically black university outside Washington.
"We know in our bones that our democracy's at risk and we know that this is your moment to defend it."
According to a tally by the BBC's US partner, CBS News, more than half of Republican midterms candidates have raised doubts about the integrity of the 2020 White House election, echoing Mr Trump's false claims of widespread fraud.
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Mr Trump spent the eve of election day holding a final rally in Ohio alongside Republican Senate candidate JD Vance. No major glitches were reported with voting on Tuesday beyond a few isolated problems typical of any election day.
The former president, who has been teasing a 2024 White House comeback bid, said he would make a "very big announcement" at his Florida estate Mar-a-Lago on 15 November. Former President Donald Trump nevertheless seized on the hiccups in a bid to cast doubt on the integrity of the vote.
He told the crowd: "If you support the decline and fall of America, then you must, you absolutely must vote for the radical left, crazy people. This election is also widely expected to serve as a launchpad for a 2024 White House comeback bid by Mr Trump who promised an announcement next week.
"If you want to stop the destruction of our country, then tomorrow you must vote Republican in a giant red wave." Mr Biden has argued that a Republican victory could weaken democracy.
Mr Trump's party needs to net only five seats to flip the House and a single seat to take over the evenly divided Senate. Key state officials who have echoed Mr Trump's false claims of a stolen presidential election in 2020 are on the ballot on Tuesday, and they could supervise how future elections are run.
Non-partisan election observers project the Republicans will pick up roughly 15-25 seats in the 435-seat House. In the CBS exit polls, just one in 10 voters thought democracy in the US was very secure. About seven in 10 said American democracy was under threat.
Supporters of Donald Trump await his arrival for Monday's rally in Vandalia, Ohio Early voting allowed some 44.5 million Americans across the country to cast their ballots before election day.
But the battle for the upper chamber of Congress could go either way, according to most political forecasts, and is expected to come down to hotly fought races in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Nevada and Arizona. US officials said with voting under way that they did not see a "specific or credible threat" to disrupt election infrastructure.
Should Republicans win the House, they have vowed to shut down the Democratic-led inquiry into last year's Capitol riot and launch investigations into the Biden administration.
Kevin McCarthy, who would probably become Republican speaker of the House - placing him second in line to the presidency - has refused to rule out impeachment proceedings.
Mr Biden's power to appoint judges or administrative posts for the next two years would be severely curtailed if Republicans win the Senate.
More than 43.5m early votes have already been cast, according to the US Elections Project.
But it might be days or weeks before the outcome of the midterms is clear if races are close, as some states allow ballots to be posted on election day, and there could be recounts.
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