U.S. midterm voting begins; election picture to emerge on the afternoon of the 4th, Korea time

[Financial News] The U.S. midterm elections, which will shape how President Donald Trump spends the remaining two years of his term, began on the 3rd (local time). A broad picture of the congressional landscape is expected to emerge around the afternoon of the 4th, Korea time.
According to local media including The Associated Press (AP), voting began at 5 a.m. on the 3rd in some areas of Vermont in the eastern United States.
In this midterm election, all 435 House seats and 35 of the 100 Senate seats are up for election. Gubernatorial elections are also being held in 36 of the 50 states. The current composition of the U.S. House is 218 Republicans, 214 Democrats, one independent (aligned with the Republicans), and two vacancies, out of 435 seats. Republicans hold 53 of the 100 Senate seats. Democrats hold 45, and the remaining two seats are held by independents allied with the Democrats. Among governors, 26 are Republicans and 24 are Democrats. For the Democrats to become the majority party, they must gain an additional four seats each in the Senate and House without losing any seats.
The United States spans six time zones, so poll opening and closing times vary by state. Voting begins in the East and moves west. Hawaii, where voting starts latest, opens its polls at 2 a.m. on the 4th (Korea time).
Polls also close starting in the East and moving west. The first polls close at 8 a.m. on the 4th in eastern areas, including Indiana and Kentucky. In the Senate battleground states, polls close in sequence: Georgia at 9 a.m. on the 4th; North Carolina and Ohio at 9:30 a.m.; Maine, Michigan, Texas and Kansas at 10 a.m.; and Iowa at 11 a.m. After that, polls close at 1 p.m. in western states including California, at 2 p.m. in most of Alaska and in Hawaii, and at 3 p.m. in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands, bringing all voting to an end.
Exit poll results will be released in part from 7 a.m. on the 4th, with fuller results announced from 8 a.m. The picture in the Senate race is expected to become clearer around the afternoon of the 4th. It could take several days to determine which party will control the House, partly because mail ballots are counted slowly in places such as California. In the 2022 midterm elections, it took AP eight days to call the House majority for the Republicans.
Local media have analyzed that the Democrats will win a majority in the House in this election. Whether the Democrats will secure a Senate majority will be decided in seven battleground states. As of the 2nd, at least 57 million people had voted early in this election, surpassing the 2022 record of 45.9 million and setting a new record for midterm elections.
[email protected] Park Jong-won Reporter