Both Ryan and Vance campaigns express optimism on their chances in Ohio Senate race
From CNN’s Melanie Zanona
Democratic Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan’s camp said they’re seeing high turnout from the cities and suburbs, which a campaign source called a “promising” sign for the Democratic representative running for Senate.
The source also said they’ve been encouraged and excited by hearing anecdotes on the ground of Republicans who have crossed party lines to vote for Ryan, which he will need in order to claim victory here in the Ohio.
Ryan himself continues to express optimism about the race, texting CNN: “Gonna win.”
Meanwhile, the JD Vance campaign also says they’re feeling good and have seen “a lot of great energy” on the ground, with a campaign source saying voter turnout has been coming “in droves across the board in key areas.”
“JD is looking forward to a resounding victory tonight,” the campaign source added.
Biden checking in with Democratic officials and political team as advisors move to dodge blame
From Phil Mattingly
President Biden has spent the day behind closed doors, checking in regularly with his political team, which is set up in the building across from the West Wing.
He’s made calls to top Democratic officials, both to thank them for their work and to ply them for info about what they’re seeing.
Biden’s very aware there is no pathway to hold onto the House, but he has asked about specific House Democrats he campaigned for, one advisor said.
He does, however, remain optimistic they can hold onto the Senate – even as he’s aware it may take several days — or longer due to a possible Georgia runoff — to know for sure.
One thing advisors are assured of based on their conversations with Biden: regardless of how the night goes, he remains steadfast in his administration’s agenda and direction. There is no pivot, there is no shift. It’s full speed ahead.
It’s part of the reason Biden’s advisors circulated a polling memo this afternoon to top allies highlighting what they view as evidence that Biden’s agenda remains largely popular in isolation.
They’re very aware the blame game is about to commence in a major way – and are working to insulate the president from the arrows that will be flying in the days ahead.
Bell County in Texas extends voting by one hour because of technical issues with check-in machines
From CNN’s Christina Zdanowicz
Polls will remain open for one extra hour in Bell County, Texas, because of technical difficulties with check-in machines, the county’s public information officer said in a press release Tuesday afternoon.
The Bell County Elections Administrator asked the county attorney to petition a district court judge to issue a court order for polls to stay open.
Judge Jack Jones, of the 146th judicial district, ordered polling hours be extended until 8 p.m. local time Tuesday, according to the court order.
This morning, check-in machines at eight of the county’s 42 voting centers were not working due to synchronization issues tied to Sunday’s time change, Bell County Public Information Officer James Stafford told CNN Tuesday morning.
“This issue led to delays in the opening of those facilities and long waits for some voters,” Stafford said in a press release Tuesday afternoon. “To ensure that every Bell County voter is given the opportunity to cast their ballot, the Bell County Elections Office has requested and been allowed to extend voting hours county-wide until 8:00 p.m.”
Polling results will be delayed this evening as a result of this, the release said. Bell County is in central Texas and includes Killeen, Texas.
Man arrested after threatening Wisconsin voters with knife, briefly shuttering polling place
From CNN’s Casey Tolan and Zachary Cohen
A man was arrested Tuesday afternoon after threatening voters with a knife in a Milwaukee suburb, briefly forcing one polling place to close.
Police in West Bend, Wisconsin, responded at about 12:35 p.m. CT to a report of a man armed with a knife at West Bend Community Memorial Library, which is a polling location. The man demanded that staff “stop the voting,” the West Bend Police Department said in a press release.
The 38-year-old man, who was not immediately identified by authorities, was arrested without incident, and no injuries were reported, police said.
Voting at the polling site stopped for just more than 30 minutes while officers investigated, the police said, but the location has since reopened. Police said that “charges will be forthcoming.”
Early tabulation may help Georgia election officials post results quicker than past elections, official says
From CNN’s Jason Morris
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says he expects that many counties across the state should be able to report results quicker and earlier than they have historically due to the state voting bill passed in 2021.
Improvements in SB 202 have clarified that county election officials can begin pre-processing and early tabulation of all ballots, including all early voting and absentee ballots, before polls close at 7 p.m. local time on Tuesday, he said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“We’ll be updating every 10 minutes for a period of time, and we’ll be getting those results out as soon we can, because we know that voters want to see those results as quick as possible,” Raffensperger said.
Roughly one-third of the state’s 159 counties are participating in early tabulation, including most of the largely populated counties in Atlanta and the Atlanta suburbs, according to state election officials. Any precinct election officials who are involved with tabulating will be sequestered at their county office until polls close to prevent information leaks.
Turnout across Georgia continues to be extremely strong on Election Day, Raffensperger said, adding that the average wait time to vote has been roughly two minutes across the state so far.
“What we are really seeing has been an election that has been very calm and quiet and smooth,” he added.
Nevada secretary of state website outage caused by technical issue, officials say
From CNN’s Sean Lyngaas
An outage earlier Tuesday of the Nevada secretary of state’s website has been resolved, and there is no evidence it was caused by malicious activity, Nevada officials said.
“The outage did not alter or disrupt our plans for Election Night Reporting,” the elections division of Nevada’s secretary of state tweeted Tuesday afternoon after voters inquired about the website being offline.
The outage was due to a technical issue, IT administrators said in a report that the Nevada secretary of state’s office shared with CNN.
“Once the cause was determined, service was manually restored through the device’s backup and the state is now back online,” the report said. “Service will be restored through the primary firewall after the conclusion of the election.”
Get up to speed on what you need to know on the US midterm elections before polls close tonight
If you’re just joining us, here’s what you need to know to get up to speed on the state of the midterms race and what to watch for next.
What’s at stake: The 2022 midterm elections will decide control of Congress, dozens of statewide positions and ballot measures on key issues in many states.
Take a look at CNN’s hour-by-hour guide on when polls close for each state.
What the results could mean for America: At every election, candidates tell voters that this is the most critical election of their lifetimes. This time they may be right.
A Republican wave would sweep in scores of candidates who swear by ex-President Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. The former President would likely weaponize a Republican-controlled House against Biden ahead of the 2024 presidential vote; Rep. Kevin McCarthy – who would likely become Republican Speaker if Republicans win – has not ruled out impeaching Biden, despite the absence of any evidence that he’s committed an impeachable offense.
A surprise Democratic victory would allow Biden to build upon his social, health, and climate change legislation, and to balance out the judiciary with liberal judges after four years of Trump’s conservative picks.
Joining us from abroad? If you’re following the US midterm elections from another part of the world, read this helpful guide on what to know and what to watch.
What to look for tonight: Watch Harry Enten’s quick explainer ahead of Election Night to get up to speed:
Fetterman campaign source sees race as “jump ball” and believes last 5 days have been critical
From CNN’s Jessica Dean
It’s the most closely watched, most expensive, perhaps most consequential Senate race in the country. and as the vote comes in for the Pennsylvania Senate race tonight, one John Fetterman campaign source describes the race as a “jump ball,” telling CNN the team for the Democratic candidate is confident they closed out the race as strongly as they possibly could.
“Pennsylvania is Pennsylvania, but we feel like we’ve done everything we can,” a second campaign source told CNN.
The first source pointed to strong crowd attendance at a rally in a Philadelphia suburb last week despite the fact the Phillies and Eagles were both playing as the beginning of “Fetterman strikes back.”
That was followed by an endorsement from Oprah Winfrey on Friday in which she chose Fetterman over his Republican challenger Dr. Mehmet Oz, a man she made a household name. On Saturday, Fetterman appeared with former President Barack Obama for rallies in Democratic strongholds, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, with President Joe Biden joining the Philadelphia event.
“The news cycles we’ve been through in the past couple days were really solid for us,” the source added.
And critically, the campaign believes Oz undercut his closing message of rejecting extremism by appearing on stage with former President Donald Trump and at the same rally as Republican gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano.
Despite all of this, the campaign is very aware and prepared for the vote count to come in slowly and knows it could take days to determine a winner.
McCarthy is confident GOP will take back the House
From CNN’s Manu Raju
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and his team have been working on a victory speech for the last couple of weeks as he remains extremely confident that they will take back the House tonight.
While he has prepared remarks, he’s expected to riff a bit as well. His team expects he may take the stage in the 11 p.m. ET hour if the night goes as they expect.
It’s expected that Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel and potentially former House Speaker Newt Gingrich could speak as well.
McCarthy has raised an enormous amount of money and stumped in about 40 states in the last few months — even as late as last night and today for two House challengers in Virginia, Jen Kiggans and Hung Cao, who Republicans believe will help them take back the majority.
The goal for Team McCarthy: Picking up at least 20 seats. If they clear that bar, they will consider it a very good night, giving them a comfortable governing majority. If the party picks up fewer, Republicans won’t be view tonight as strong of a showing as they hoped. which could spell problems for getting their agenda through Congress.
