Americans voting today Tuesday 3 November 2026 for the midterm elections, i.e. the renewal of Congress which fall halfway through the presidential mandate. To understand who wins, we will have to wait for the first indications of the polls at the exit of the polls which will arrive on the Italian night between Tuesday and Wednesday 4 November, when the polls will begin to close on the east coast of the United States. But to know for sure which party will control the House and Senate, however, it may be necessary to wait several days.
Live: US elections 2026, Trump at the test of the midterms: the live broadcast and the results of the House and Senate
The most important time slot for following the elections from Italy will be between 2 and 6 in the morning on Wednesday 4 November. In those hours a significant part of the results will arrive and it will be possible to begin to understand whether a Democratic victory, a Republican hold or a divided Congress is emerging.
| The times to follow the count | |
|---|---|
| 00:00 | the first polls close in some areas of Indiana and Kentucky. |
| 01:00 | Voting ends in Georgia, Virginia, South Carolina and Vermont, as well as most of Florida. |
| 01:30 | polls close in North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia. There are two states, North Carolina and Ohio, to follow with particular attention for the Senate battle. |
| 02:00 | polls close in Pennsylvania, Maine, New Jersey and numerous other East Coast states. Voting also ends in much of Texas and Michigan. |
| 03:00 | Voting is completed in Texas and Michigan and polls close in Arizona, Wisconsin, New York and other states. |
| 04:00 | Voting operations end in Nevada and other Western states. |
| 05:00 | polls close in California and Washington State. |
| 07:00 | Voting concludes in Hawaii and Alaska, including the last seats in the Aleutian Islands. |
When we know who won the House and Senate
Attention will be focused mainly on two numbers: 218 and 51. In the House of Representatives, all 435 seats are renewed. To control it, a party must win at least 218. Before the vote, the Republicans had a narrow majority, with 219 members and two vacant seats.
In the Senate, 35 seats out of a total of 100 are up for grabs. The Republicans start with a majority of 53 to 47. To gain control of the upper house, the Democrats must reach 51 senators, while the Republicans need 50, because in the event of a tie, Vice President JD Vance can cast the deciding vote. The difference is important: Democrats may be able to win the House without also winning the Senate. And it could happen that the outcome of one branch of Congress becomes clear long before the other.
Recent history suggests caution. In the 2022 midterm elections, it took four days to award control of the Senate, and eight days to know the winner in the House. And even in 2024, when Donald Trump won the presidential elections, control of the Senate was assigned the day after the vote, while the House had to wait another eight days.
The main reason for the delays is related to the counting of ballots, especially those sent by mail. In California, for example, ballots mailed by Election Day and delivered within the following seven days can also be counted. The authorities must also verify signatures, check provisional ballots and complete other counting operations. The definitive certification of the results occurs subsequently.
The weight of California could be decisive especially for the Chamber: if the majority depended on some particularly contested constituencies, the national result could remain uncertain for several days. Alaska and Maine also have a peculiarity. Both use a voting system with successive preferences, the so-called “ranked-choice voting”. If no candidate obtains an absolute majority of the first preferences, the least voted candidates are progressively eliminated and the votes are redistributed according to the preferences indicated by the voters.
Then there is a further eventuality: in Georgia, if no candidate reaches the required majority, a run-off is scheduled for 1 December 2026. If it were decisive for the balance of the Senate, the uncertainty could therefore last for almost a month.
It’s worth clarifying: although the vote represents a fundamental step for the future of the administration, Donald Trump will remain in the White House regardless of the result. If the Republicans retain both chambers, Trump will be able to continue to count on a parliamentary majority in favor of his political agenda, despite having to deal with any divisions within the party. However, if the Democrats win the Chamber, they will be able to influence the approval of laws, exercise greater control over the administration and launch parliamentary investigations. A Democratic victory in the Senate too would have even broader consequences, particularly on presidential nominations.