Live: US prepares for voting as polls predict close midterm races

live US midterm elections 2026 live updates: US prepares for voting as polls predict close midterm races Submit a comment or question Live updates New: Filters Choose what information you see below by using filters So what's up for grabs? All 435 seats in the House and 35 of the seats in the Senate. Donald Trump's Republican party currently controls both chambers of Congress. The Democrats are hoping to flip enough seats to win a majority. If they win control of at least one chamber, they will gain power to bring their own laws to the floor. Send your questions for our Q&A! Later this afternoon, the ABC's chief elections and data analyst Casey Briggs will be joining this live blog to answer some of your questions about the midterms. Send your questions in at the top of this page, under "submit a comment or question". LoadingWhat is a midterm election? Americans vote on who their next president is every four years. But they have the chance to decide which political party controls Congress (the US House of Representatives and the Senate) more often. When a president is being voted in, seats in both chambers are up for election as well. And then halfway through the president's term, voters can head back to the polls to shake Congress up again. This is known as the midterm election. Key Event US strikes Iranian targets in Strait of Hormuz, AP reports The United States has conducted strikes on some Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz, a US official has told the Associated Press. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the US targeted "Iranians using surface-to-air missiles against US assets". These strikes, of course, come on the eve of the crucial US midterm elections that we are covering from today. Iran said on Monday it had a two-day plan to reopen the strait and resume nuclear talks with the United States. Iranian state television reported that explosions were heard on Qeshm Island. Reporting with AP Key Event Welcome to our live coverage of the US midterms! It is the eve of the midterm elections, and earlier today we saw reports that the US has struck Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz. We will keep you up to date on that and any other developments as Americans begin to head to the polls in what US President Donald Trump has described as the "most important in our lifetime". That being said, we've still got a little while to go before the action begins — the first lots of polls will start opening about 10pm AEST on the east coast of the US. If you'd like to find out more about how the midterms work, we've got an explainer covering all the basics. Let's go!