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Trump Announces 2024 Election Run

Former President Trump on Tuesday evening formally declared he is seeking the Republican Party nomination for the 2024 election. Speaking for an hour to an invited crowd in a ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Trump criticized the administration of his successor, Joe Biden, telling supporters it has destroyed the U.S. economy and turned America’s cities into crime-filled “cesspools of blood.”

“In order to make America great and glorious again,” Trump said, “I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States.”

Unlike his last unsuccessful run in 2020 as the incumbent, Trump — who was impeached twice by the House of Representatives — is expected to face significant competition for his party’s nomination this time as he did in 2016. Possible contenders include Florida Governor Ron DeSantis; his former vice president, Mike Pence, and his former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo.

President Biden, who defeated Trump two years ago, has said he intends to run again but has not made an official announcement.

Only one American president has ever served nonconsecutive terms. That was Grover Cleveland, elected in 1885 and 1893.
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Through US Midterms, Europeans See Democracy Reaffirmed — But for How Long?

The U.S. midterm elections have been closely followed overseas — especially in Europe, where analysts say some of America’s closest and oldest allies are relieved that U.S. democracy held the course. But many are unsure for how long — and some are calling for a stronger and more independent Europe as a result.

In France and elsewhere in the European Union, the U.S. midterm elections have dominated the airwaves, including on Tuesday, as final results trickle in showing the Democrats retaining control of the Senate and the Republicans likely to narrowly win the House.

French analyst and historian Nicole Bacharan, who specializes in French-U.S. relations, said last week’s relatively smooth congressional vote eased fears within the European Union about the strength of America’s democracy — and their own sometimes fragile multiparty systems — that was shaken during the tumultuous aftermath of the 2020 U.S. presidential vote.

“The comforting thing about these midterms is obviously there is a majority of American citizens — Republicans and Democrats — who want to be heard through the vote,” said Bacharan. “They did vote — a lot. And they waited peacefully for the results.”

It may be a short-term reprieve. The next U.S. presidential election is only two years away.

“Well, 2024 is a big question mark everywhere — and in Europe especially,” said Bacharan. “Who is going to be the next president? What kind of international vision will he or she have? That’s all unknown.”

Warming relations

Frosty European Union-U.S. relations under former U.S. President Donald Trump have thawed considerably under pro-Europe President Joe Biden. Today, the two sides generally agree when it comes to key issues such as climate change and the war in Ukraine. But tensions still exist, for example, over last year’s hasty U.S. pullout in Afghanistan, or over a nuclear submarine deal with Australia that strained relations between Washington and Paris.

All of this bolsters calls for Europe to invest in its own security.

“We cannot be sure U.S. democracy sustains a medium-term, long-term commitment to underwriting European security in the [generous] way the U.S. has done over the past seven decades,” said Thorsten Benner, who heads the Global Public Policy Institute, a Berlin-based research group. He believes a Republican majority in the U.S. House, for instance, will push Europeans to invest more in Ukraine’s war against Russia. It’s a call he agrees with.

“It is primarily Europe’s problem,” said Benner. “This is a war in our neighborhood and not in Mexico or Canada. So we need to invest more.”

The call for a stronger European defense isn’t new. French President Emmanuel Macron has championed it for years. But progress has been slow.

“Europeans among themselves don’t agree on how to go about it. Just think of the French and the Germans, for instance,” said Bacharan. “And the capabilities of the United States — their military capabilities — [are] so much bigger, so much more enormous than anything going on in Europe. It’s not possible.”

Many said Europe may not have a choice. The next generation of U.S. leaders may be far less committed to the trans-Atlantic alliance than their predecessors. The earlier Europeans prepare for that possibility, they said, the better.
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Democrats Secure Control of US Senate, Republicans Near Control of House

The results of the 2022 midterm elections are firming up. Democrats held their majority in the U.S. Senate, while Republicans are poised to take control of the U.S House of Representatives despite a poorer than expected showing. VOA’s Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.
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Republicans on Cusp of Winning Control of House of Representatives

U.S. Republicans were on the cusp Tuesday of winning control of the House of Representatives in the next session of Congress that takes office in January.

After new Republican victories Monday night, the party has won 217 seats to the Democrats’ 204 in both parties’ quest for a 218-seat majority in the 435-member chamber.

Election analysts say vote counts in the remaining 14 contests give Republicans plenty of opportunities to pick up one more seat and likely additional ones to wrest control of the chamber from the current Democratic majority.

Democratic President Joe Biden acknowledged as much on Monday, telling reporters at a G-20 news conference in Indonesia, “I think we’re going to get very close in the House. I think it’s going to be very close, but I don’t think we’re going to make it.”

In late vote counting Monday, six days after last Tuesday’s nationwide congressional elections, Republicans picked up seats in the eastern state of New York and the western states of Arizona and California. The outcomes of more contests in California, the country’s most populous state, and elsewhere remain to be decided.

The impending Republican takeover of the lower chamber of Congress is bittersweet for the party, giving it control but with a far smaller majority than many party officials had predicted before the election. That could make it hard for the party to unify on key legislation, which in any event is likely to be opposed in the Senate, where Democrats will have a continuing narrow edge. 

Nonetheless, a Republican majority in the House is likely to give Biden opponents an entrée to launch investigations of his administration’s missteps during his first two years in the White House, such as last year’s chaotic U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and the lack of control of the influx of thousands of migrants across the U.S. border with Mexico.

A House Republican majority would also let top party leaders join negotiations with Senate Democrats and the White House over crucial government spending allocations, climate change policies, continued aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia and other significant issues.

Democrats retained their narrow control of the Senate this past weekend, as they captured their 50th seat in the 100-member chamber, allowing Vice President Kamala Harris, as the chamber’s presiding officer, to cast tie-breaking votes on controversial legislation.

Democrats currently hold a 50-49 edge in the next Senate session, with Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock facing a December 6 runoff election in Georgia against his Republican opponent, former college and professional football star Herschel Walker, to decide the final contest.

Most U.S. political analysts are predicting that when all the remaining House races are decided, Republicans will have an advantage of between three and nine seats, well below Republican leaders’ pre-election predictions of as much as a 30-seat majority.

“We beat the odds,” Biden told reporters in Cambodia, where he attended a summit of Asian nations before heading to Bali, Indonesia, for a summit of the world’s 20 largest economies. “I feel good, and I’m looking forward to the next couple years.”

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, assured of remaining that chamber’s majority leader, called the results a “vindication” for Democrats and their agenda.

He said Republicans had turned off voters with extremism and “negativity,” including some candidates’ erroneous insistence that the 2020 election had been stolen from then-President Donald Trump.

“America showed that we believed in our democracy,” Schumer told reporters.

Trump blamed

Some Republicans are targeting Trump for his support of candidates, many of whom lost, that was based largely on whether they agreed with his false claim that he was cheated from reelection. 

Some Republicans have noted that the 45th president, as the biggest name in Republican politics, has now presided over three large party losses: in the 2018 midterm elections; his own loss seeking reelection in 2020; and a less-than-successful Republican showing in the midterm elections last week.

Nonetheless, Trump has signaled he will announce his 2024 presidential candidacy Tuesday night, his third run for the White House.

Even as he ignores calls from some Republicans to hold off on the announcement until this year’s election is definitively completed, Trump is facing federal and state criminal investigations that could complicate his new political ambitions. He was twice impeached in the House for his actions as president but acquitted in the Senate, where a two-thirds majority was required for conviction.

Now, the former president is being investigated for his role in trying to upend his 2020 loss, allegations that he fomented the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, and allegations he illegally took highly classified national security documents with him when he left office 22 months ago.

No criminal charges have been brought against him, but prosecutors have not publicly disclosed any timetable for completing the various investigations.
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Republicans Edge Closer to Winning Control of House of Representatives

Republicans appeared Monday to be edging closer to winning control of the House of Representatives in the next session of Congress that takes office in January. 

Republicans already have won 212 seats to the Democrats’ 204 in both parties’ quest for a 218-seat majority in the 435-member chamber. But election analysts say vote counts in the remaining 19 unsettled contests mostly appeared to be headed in the Republicans’ favor, which eventually could allow them to wrest control of the chamber from the current Democratic majority. 

Democratic President Joe Biden acknowledged as much, telling reporters at a G-20 news conference in Indonesia, “I think we’re going to get very close in the House. I think it’s going to be very close, but I don’t think we’re going to make it.” 

With tedious vote counting of mail-in ballots, it could take days yet for Republicans to officially reach the 218-seat majority. But a Republican majority in the House is likely to give Biden opponents an entrée to launch investigations of his administration’s missteps during his first two years in the White House, such as last year’s chaotic U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and the ongoing influx of thousands of migrants across the U.S. border with Mexico. 

A House Republican majority, albeit one that is much narrower than party officials had predicted before last week’s voting, would also let it join negotiations with Senate Democrats and the White House over crucial government spending allocations, climate change policies, continued aid to Ukraine in its war with Russia and other significant issues.  

Democrats retained their narrow control of the Senate this past weekend, as they captured their 50th seat in the 100-member chamber, allowing Vice President Kamala Harris, as the chamber’s presiding officer, to cast the occasional tie-breaking vote for the Democratic agenda against unified Republican opposition on controversial legislation. 

Democrats currently hold a 50-49 edge in the next Senate session, with Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock facing a December 6 runoff election in Georgia against his Republican opponent, former college and professional football star Herschel Walker, to decide the remaining contest. 

Most U.S. political analysts are predicting that when the remaining votes are counted in the uncalled House races, Republicans could win a very narrow majority, perhaps with 219 to 222 seats to 216 to 213 for the Democrats, well below Republican leaders’ preelection predictions of as much as a 30-seat majority. 

“We beat the odds,” Biden told reporters in Cambodia, where he attended a summit of Asian nations before heading to Bali, Indonesia, for a summit of the world’s 20 largest economies. “I feel good, and I’m looking forward to the next couple years.” 

Before last Tuesday’s election, U.S. political pollsters and analysts had widely predicted a sweeping “red wave” of Republican wins in the House and a possible takeover of the Senate, as well. 

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York, assured of remaining the chamber’s majority leader, called the results a “vindication” for Democrats and their agenda. 

He said Republicans had turned off voters with extremism and “negativity,” including some candidates’ erroneous insistence that the 2020 election had been stolen from then-President Donald Trump. “America showed that we believed in our democracy,” Schumer told reporters. 

Some Republicans are targeting Trump for his support of candidates, many of whom lost, that was based largely on whether they agreed with his claim that he was cheated out of another four-year term in the 2020 election. 

Some Republicans have noted that Trump, as the biggest name in Republican politics, has now presided over large losses in 2018 congressional contests midway through his presidential term, his own loss seeking reelection in 2020 and now a less-than-successful 2022 showing. 

Nonetheless, even with last week’s vote counts continuing, Trump has signaled he plans to announce his 2024 presidential candidacy on Tuesday. 

Trump is facing federal and state criminal investigations over his role in trying to upend his 2020 loss, whether he fomented the January 6, 2021, riot of his supporters at the U.S. Capitol and whether he illegally took highly classified national security documents with him to his oceanside mansion in Florida when he left office 22 months ago. 

No criminal charges have been brought against the 45th U.S. president. 

 
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Democrats Retain Control of US Senate

The Democratic Party retained control of the U.S. Senate on Saturday night with the reelection of Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada, giving the Democrats 50 seats to the Republicans’ 49, so far.

Cortez Masto defeated Republican challenger Adam Laxalt, a former Nevada attorney general, to win.

With the victories of Cortez Masto, which The Associated Press called Saturday night, and that of Democratic Senator Mark Kelly in Arizona late Friday, Democrats now control 50 Senate seats.

One last seat has yet to be filled, Georgia’s. That race will be decided in a Dec. 6 runoff election between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger, former football player Herschel Walker.

Even if Walker wins, also giving the Republicans 50 of the 100 seats in the Senate, the Democrats would control the body because Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, could cast tie-breaking votes.

The control of the House of Representatives is still being decided as final vote tallies have yet to be posted in numerous districts, mostly in Western states.

Ballots mailed on Election Day can still be counted in Nevada if received by Saturday. Officials in that state have a Thursday deadline to finish counting all the ballots.

Both Nevada and Arizona were working to count a large number of mail-in ballots, which take longer to tally because election officials need to match signatures on mail-in ballots to voter registration rolls.

Election workers in Arizona are also still counting ballots to determine the outcome of the race for governor as well as three competitive House seats.

Kari Lake, the state’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, has accused election officials in Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous, of deliberately delaying the vote counting to make it look like Democrats are doing better than they actually are.

The Republican chair of the county board of supervisors, Bill Gates, rebuffed the charge, saying staff are working 14-18 hours a day and will continue to do so through the weekend.

“This is how things work in Arizona and have for decades,” he said, adding, “We are doing what we can and still maintaining accuracy.”

In the race for control of the House of Representatives, Republicans edged closer to winning control but have not yet reached a majority of seats.

As of Friday, Republicans appeared to have won 211 House contests in their quest to attain a 218-vote majority in the 435-member chamber. Democrats have won 200 seats, leaving 24 races undecided, according to The Associated Press, as vote counting continues.

In California, results in more than a dozen competitive House districts have yet to be announced.

Republicans say they are confident they will win the House majority even as they voice dismay that the size of their political advantage over Democrats is likely to be far smaller than pre-election predictions that forecast a “red wave” of Republican winners filling the House chamber come January, when the new Congress is sworn in.

If Republicans do take control of the House, it would give them veto power over President Joe Biden’s agenda and the ability to launch investigations into his administration.

Biden on Wednesday characterized his Democratic Party as having done better than expected against the Republicans and announced he will invite leaders of both parties to the White House after he returns from G-20 meetings in Indonesia to discuss how to work together on economic and national security priorities.

Whatever the eventual outcome, Biden said the election, carried out with only minor disputes across the country, was a good day for America.

“Our democracy has been tested in recent years, but with their votes, the American people have spoken and proven once again that democracy is who we are,” he said.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Senate Control May Come Down to Nevada

Control of the U.S. Senate may come down to Nevada, where a slow ballot count entered its final act Saturday in the nail-biter contest between Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto and Republican challenger Adam Laxalt.

Saturday is the last day that mail ballots can arrive and be counted under the state’s new voting law. Election officials were hustling to get through a backlog of tens of thousands of ballots to determine the race’s winner.

The Nevada race took on added importance after Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly was declared the winner of his reelection campaign in Arizona Friday night, giving his party 49 seats in the chamber. Republicans also have 49.

If Cortez Masto wins, Democrats would maintain their control of the Senate given Vice President Kamala Harris’ tie-breaking vote. If Laxalt wins, the Georgia Senate runoff next month would determine which party has the single-vote Senate edge.

Cortez Masto was only a few hundred votes behind Laxalt, with most of the remaining uncounted ballots in heavily Democratic Clark County, which includes Las Vegas. Democrats were confident those ballots would vault their candidate into the lead.

Laxalt has said he expects to maintain his advantage and be declared the victor. But on Saturday he acknowledged in a tweet that the calculus has changed because Cortez Masto had performed better than Republicans expected in Clark County ballots counted over the past few days.

“This has narrowed our victory window,” he tweeted, acknowledging the race comes down to the final Clark ballots.

“If they are GOP precincts or slightly DEM leaning then we can still win,” Laxalt tweeted. “If they continue to trend heavy DEM then she will overtake us.”

Thousands of ballots still uncounted

If the race remains too close to call after Saturday, a few thousand more ballots could be added to the totals early next week. Mail ballots with clerical errors can be “cured” by voters until the end of the day Monday, and then added to the totals. And a few thousand provisional ballots also remain, votes that election officials must double-check are legally countable by Tuesday before they can be tallied.

“We are doing everything in our power to move ballots forward just as quickly as we can,” Joe Gloria, the registrar in Clark County, said Friday.

An estimated 23,000 ballots remain to be counted in the county. Gloria said there were also 9,600 ballots being “cured” and 5,555 provisional ballots. Clark County accounts for three-quarters of Nevada’s population.

Results of other races

In another key race, Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak lost his reelection bid to his Republican challenger, sheriff Joe Lombardo, on Friday night.

Nevada, a closely divided swing state, is one of the most racially diverse in the nation, a working-class state whose residents have been especially hard hit by inflation and other economic turmoil.

Roughly three-fourths of Nevada voters said the country is headed in the wrong direction, and about 5 in 10 called the economy the most important issue facing the country, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of 2,100 of the state’s voters.

Voters viewed the economy negatively, with VoteCast finding nearly 8 in 10 saying economic conditions are either not so good or poor. Only about 2 in 10 called the economy excellent or good. And about a third of voters said their families are falling behind financially.

But that didn’t necessarily translate into anger at President Joe Biden or his party. About half considered inflation the most important issue facing the U.S., but they were evenly split over whether they think higher prices are due to Biden’s policies or factors outside his control.

Nevada is also a famously live-and-let-live state, and Cortez Masto and other Democrats made preserving abortion rights a centerpiece of their campaigns. According to VoteCast, 7 in 10 wanted the procedure kept legal in all or most cases.

Republicans, however, relentlessly hammered the economic argument, contending it was time for a leadership change. They also sought to capitalize on lingering frustrations about pandemic shutdowns that devastated Las Vegas’ tourist-centric economy in 2020.

On Thursday morning, The Associated Press declared Republican Stavros Anthony the winner in the lieutenant governor race, while Republican Andy Mathews was elected state controller.

The state’s lone Republican congressman, Mark Amodei, easily won reelection in his mostly rural district in northern Nevada. The state’s three Las Vegas-area Democratic members of the House were also reelected.
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Kelly Win in Arizona Puts Democrats 1 Seat From Senate Control

U.S. Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly won his bid for reelection Friday in the crucial swing state of Arizona, defeating Republican venture capitalist Blake Masters to put his party one victory away from clinching control of the chamber for the next two years of Joe Biden’s presidency.

With Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaking vote, Democrats can retain control of the Senate by winning either the Nevada race, which remains too early to call, or next month’s runoff in the state of Georgia. Republicans now must win both those races to take the majority.

The Arizona race is one of a handful of contests that Republicans targeted in their bid to take control of the 50-50 Senate. It was a test of the inroads that Kelly and other Democrats have made in a state once reliably dominated by the GOP. Kelly’s victory suggests Democratic success in Arizona was not an aberration during Donald Trump’s presidency.

The closely watched race for governor between Democrat Katie Hobbs and Republican Kari Lake was too early to call Friday night. In the secretary of state’s race, Democrat Adrian Fontes defeated Republican Mark Finchem, a top 2020 election denier.

Kelly, a former NASA astronaut who’s flown in space four times, is married to former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords, who inspired the nation with her recovery from a gunshot wound to the head during an assassination attempt in 2011 that killed six people and injured 13. Kelly and Giffords went on to co-found a gun safety advocacy group.

Kelly and Giffords were at an Elton John concert in Phoenix on Friday night when The Associated Press called the race, campaign spokesperson Sarah Guggenheimer said. Maricopa County reported a large batch of results that increased Kelly’s lead and made clear Masters could not make up the difference with the remaining ballots.

“It’s been one of the great honors of my life to serve as Arizona’s senator,” Kelly said in a statement. “I’m humbled by the trust our state has placed in me to continue this work.”

Kelly’s victory in a 2020 special election spurred by the death of Republican Sen. John McCain gave Democrats both of Arizona’s Senate seats for the first time in 70 years. The shift was propelled by the state’s fast-changing demographics and the unpopularity of Trump.

Kelly’s 2022 campaign largely focused on his support for abortion rights, protecting Social Security, lowering drug prices and ensuring a stable water supply in the midst of a drought, which has curtailed Arizona’s cut of Colorado River water.

With President Joe Biden struggling with low approval ratings, Kelly distanced himself from the president, particularly on border security, and played down his Democratic affiliation amid angst about the state of the economy.

He also styled himself as an independent willing to buck his party, in the style of McCain.

Masters, an acolyte of billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel, tried to penetrate Kelly’s independent image, aligning him with Biden’s failure to secure the U.S.-Mexico border and tamp down on rampant inflation.

Masters endeared himself to many GOP primary voters with his penchant for provocation and contrarian thinking. He called for privatizing Social Security, took a hard-line stance against abortion and promoted a racist theory popular with white nationalists that Democrats are seeking to use immigration to replace white people in America.

But after emerging bruised from a contentious primary, Masters struggled to raise money and was put on the defense over his controversial positions.

He earned Trump’s endorsement after claiming “Trump won in 2020,” but under pressure during a debate last month, he acknowledged he hasn’t seen evidence the election was rigged. He later doubled down on the false claim that Trump won.

After the primary, he scrubbed some of his more controversial positions from his website, but it wasn’t enough for the moderate swing voters who decided the election.
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US Senate Race Tightens in Nevada; More Results Expected in Arizona

Control of the U.S. Senate was still undetermined late Friday, but incumbent Senator Mark Kelly’s win in Arizona tied the Republican and Democratic wins with 49 seats each.

Election officials in the Western state of Nevada said the race there tightened late Friday in favor of the Democratic candidate, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, against her Republican challenger, Adam Laxalt. If Cortez Masto wins, the Democrats will be in control of the Senate, regardless of the outcome of Georgia’s still-undecided vote, because Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris can cast tiebreaking votes in the 100-member Senate.

Days after Americans voted across the country Tuesday, control of both chambers of Congress — the Senate and the House of Representatives — is still in limbo as final vote tallies have yet to be posted in numerous districts, mostly in Western states.

The Georgia race will be decided in a December 6 runoff election between Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger, former football player Herschel Walker. With a third candidate in their contest winning 2% of the vote, neither Warnock nor Walker crossed the 50% threshold required to win the seat.

The latest results from Nevada on Friday evening showed the race getting close in a tight contest between Laxalt, a former state attorney general, and Cortez Masto.

Ballots mailed on Election Day can still be counted in Nevada if they are received by Saturday. Officials in that state have a Thursday deadline to finish counting all the ballots.

Both Nevada and Arizona were working to count a high number of mail-in ballots, which take longer to tally because election officials need to match signatures on mail-in ballots to voter registration rolls.

Election workers in Arizona are also still counting ballots to determine the outcome of the race for governor as well as three competitive House seats.

Kari Lake, the state’s Republican gubernatorial candidate, has accused election officials in Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous, of deliberately delaying the vote counting to make it look like Democrats are doing better than they actually are.

The Republican chair of the county board of supervisors, Bill Gates, rebuffed the charge, saying staff are working 14-18 hours a day and will continue through the weekend.

“This is how things work in Arizona and have for decades,” he said, adding, “We are doing what we can and still maintaining accuracy.”

In the race for control of the House of Representatives, Republicans edged closer to winning control but have not yet reached a majority of seats.

As of Friday, Republicans appeared to have won 211 House contests in their quest to attain a 218-vote majority in the 435-member chamber. Democrats have won 200 seats, leaving 24 races undecided, according to The Associated Press, as vote counting continues.

In California, results in more than a dozen competitive House districts have yet to be announced.

Republicans say they are confident they will win the House majority even as they voice dismay that the size of their political advantage over Democrats is likely to be far smaller than pre-election predictions that forecast a “red wave” of Republican winners filling the House chamber come January, when the new Congress is sworn in.

If Republicans do take control of the House, it would give them veto power over President Joe Biden’s agenda and the ability to launch investigations into his administration.

Biden on Wednesday characterized his Democratic Party as having done better than expected against the Republicans and announced he will invite leaders of both parties to the White House after he returns from G-20 meetings in Indonesia to discuss how to work together on economic and national security priorities.

Whatever the eventual outcome, Biden said the election, carried out with only minor disputes across the country, was a good day for America.

“Our democracy has been tested in recent years, but with their votes, the American people have spoken and proven once again that democracy is who we are,” he said.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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A Nation Waits: US Election Workers Counting Thousands of Votes

Arizona and Nevada election workers were toiling on Friday to tally hundreds of thousands of ballots that could determine control of the U.S. Senate and the shape of President Joe Biden’s next two years in office, in a vote count that officials in the two battleground states warn could drag on for days.

Winning both contests would give either Democrats or Republicans a Senate majority, while a split would transform a December 6 runoff Senate election in Georgia into a proxy battle for the chamber.

Political analysts are anticipating a rush of campaign funds into Georgia as Republicans and Democrats gear up for the final battle of the 2022 midterm elections.

In Arizona, law enforcement officials remained on high alert for potential protests, with barricades and security fencing erected around the Maricopa County elections department, where dozens of officials are working 18-hour days to verify outstanding ballots and tabulate votes.

Kari Lake, the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Arizona, has criticized election officials in Maricopa County, the state’s most populous, as “incompetent” and “despicable,” accusing them of deliberately delaying the vote counting.

Bill Gates, chairperson of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and a Republican, bristled at Lake’s comments.

“Everybody needs to calm down a little bit and turn down the rhetoric,” he told reporters. “That’s the problem with what’s going on with our country right now.”

Control of House, Senate still in question

In the fight for control of the House of Representatives, Republicans were inching closer to becoming the majority and ending four years of rule by Biden’s Democrats. That would give Republicans veto power over Biden’s legislative agenda and allow them to launch potentially damaging investigations into his administration.

Republicans had secured at least 211 of the 218 House seats they need for a majority, Edison Research projected late on Thursday, while Democrats had won 199. Many of the races where winners have not yet been determined are in Arizona, California and Washington state.

Despite the real possibility that they may lose the House, Democrats have still cheered their success in curbing their predicted losses after they galvanized voters angry over the Supreme Court’s decision in June to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion.

The Republican House leader, Representative Kevin McCarthy, has already announced his intention to run for speaker if Republicans take over, an outcome he has described as inevitable.

It is unclear whether a challenger to McCarthy will emerge, but some of the most conservative House Republicans have expressed doubts that he has enough votes yet to become speaker, the most powerful official in the House.

Meanwhile, Republican infighting in the Senate broke into the open on Friday as senators urged the postponement of a Wednesday leadership election so that they have time to discuss why the party did not fare better on Tuesday.

Senator Mitch McConnell is hoping to continue as Republican leader, despite sniping from former President Donald Trump and other conservatives.

Counting could take until next week

Officials overseeing vote counting in the Arizona and Nevada Senate races, where Democratic incumbents are trying to fend off Republican challengers, have said it could take until next week to tally some 520,000 uncounted mail-in ballots. Most of those were in Maricopa County, which encompasses Phoenix.

Their work is slowed by the need to match signatures on mail-in ballots to voter registration signatures after high numbers of such votes were dropped off on Election Day.

By midday on Friday, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly had extended his lead over Republican Blake Masters to 115,000 votes, with about 80% of the vote tallied, while Arizona Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs had extended her narrow lead over Trump-backed Republican Kari Lake to 27,000.

Some of Trump’s most high-profile endorsed candidates lost pivotal races on Tuesday, marring his status as Republican kingmaker and leading several Republicans to blame his divisive brand for the party’s disappointing performance.

While Trump has not officially launched a third White House campaign, the former president has strongly suggested he will do so and is planning a “special announcement” at his Florida club on Tuesday.
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Why Does US Ballot Counting Take So Long?

The balance of power in the U.S. Congress following Tuesday’s midterm elections is still up in the air, with several key races yet to be called some 48 hours after many polls closed.

A cliffhanger-style multiday wait for results is far from unusual in the United States, where it is the media that generally first calls elections, based on votes tabulated by county clerks and other officials as well as statistical analysis.

While the long delays can exasperate American voters — and raise questions from curious international observers — there are several reasons why the process can stretch out.

Patchwork of rules

For starters, U.S. elections are largely decentralized, and each of the 50 states has its own rules.

Some Americans vote by machine; others, by paper ballot. Some vote in person; others, by mail.

Some vote on Election Day. Others vote in advance. Many citizens take advantage of ballot drop boxes.

As election officials in multiple states urged patience with the vote counting, Republican U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida aired his complaints.

“If #Florida can count 7.5 million ballots in 5 hours how can it take days for some states to count less than 2 million?” Rubio tweeted Wednesday.

Ballots, on which Americans generally vote for a variety of candidates and initiatives, can take a while to tally.

With voting by mail widely popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic, things are taking even longer — the ballots can arrive at counting stations several days after the election. Ohio and Alaska count those that arrive up to 10 days later.

Compounding matters, in many states, election officials are not even allowed to begin counting mail-in votes in advance.

The extended time needed to carry out the process fuels conspiracy theories, especially after the 2020 election, which President Donald Trump falsely claimed was rigged against him.

That race between Trump and eventual winner Joe Biden was not known for four days.

Georgia nail-biter

The southeastern state of Georgia played a special role in 2020, as the balance of the U.S. Senate hung on a second-round election in the state.

This year is proving to be a case of déjà vu.

With no one candidate surpassing the 50% threshold Tuesday to prevent a second round, the two leading candidates, Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker are headed to a Dec. 6 runoff.

Organizing elections in a country of some 333 million citizens is in itself a logistical challenge.

The process rarely goes off without a few small hiccups. This year, for example, the electoral machines in one Arizona county encountered operational problems, disrupting the vote.

Some Republicans — including Trump himself — pointed to it as evidence of fraud, a claim immediately dismissed by authorities.

Even without technical incident, races can simply be extremely close, as several in Tuesday’s election are turning out to be.

Twenty states have laws mandating a recount if the margin between candidates is too thin.

In one standout case in 2000, the country held its breath for 36 days with the entire election hinging on delayed results from one state, Florida, as Texas governor George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore vied for the White House.

At the heart of the civic imbroglio was a razor-thin vote that prompted a highly contested hand recount. In the end, the battle wound its way to the Supreme Court, which issued a decision favoring Bush that December.
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Tight California Races May Determine US House Control

A string of too-early-to-call California races remains in play and might end up determining whether Republicans seize control of the U.S. House or Democrats hang on to power.

With millions of votes still uncounted Wednesday across the nation’s most populous state, uncertainty remained for about a dozen of the state’s 52 House contests. The most competitive of those races were in the Los Angeles region and the Central Valley farm belt.

In Southern California, Democratic Representatives Katie Porter and Mike Levin were locked in close races, despite President Joe Biden’s late-hour campaign swing on their behalf. East of Los Angeles, Republican Representative Ken Calvert was trailing Democrat Will Rollins by 12 points, but less than one-third of the anticipated votes had been tallied.

In the Central Valley, GOP Representative David Valadao, who voted to impeach then-President Donald Trump, had 54% of the votes counted so far in his race against Democrat Rudy Salas, but most ballots had yet to be tabulated. Four years ago, Valadao lost a reelection bid after seeing a sizable lead on Election Day evaporate as late-arriving mail-in ballots were counted. He won back the seat in 2020.

Should Democrats defeat Calvert and prevail in other contests where they were leading or only slightly behind, the year would have echoes of 2018, when the party seized seven Republican-held California seats on the way to retaking the House.

But if Calvert hangs on and Republicans oust Porter and Levin and win an open seat in Central California, the scenario would look similar to 2020, when GOP House candidates flipped four seats in a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans by nearly 2-to-1.

‘Political bellwether’ or ‘island’

With votes still being counted in key races “we don’t know whether California is a political bellwether or an island,” said Thad Kousser, a political science professor at the University of California-San Diego.

If Democrats can hold the Porter and Levin seats and oust Calvert, “this red ripple that went across the country becomes a blue counter-ripple,” he said.

More broadly, California hewed largely to its liberal leanings on Election Day. Governor Gavin Newsom and U.S. Senator Alex Padilla, both Democrats, were easily reelected, voters overwhelmingly endorsed enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution, and the Legislature remained firmly in Democratic hands.

Democrats also appeared in position to retain their grip on all statewide offices. A Republican hasn’t won one of those races in California since 2006 when Arnold Schwarzenegger was re-elected governor.

The potential for slight shifts mirrored the national political landscape, in which predictions for a Republican wave sweeping Congress into solid GOP control failed to materialize. Republicans were closing in on a slim House majority while Senate control will be decided by close races in Arizona, Nevada and Georgia.

A loss by Porter would be stunning, after she spent more than $24 million to win a third term. She is a star of the party’s progressive wing, a prolific fundraiser with a national following and is frequently mentioned as a future U.S. Senate candidate.

With about half the vote counted, she was virtually tied with Republican Scott Baugh, who had relentlessly criticized her over soaring gas and grocery prices in a closely divided coastal district with a conservative streak. Porter focused strongly on protecting reproductive rights, after the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision.

Calvert — the longest-serving Republican in the California congressional delegation — was first elected in 1992.

His support from Trump posed a challenge in a new, reshaped district about equally split between Democrats and Republicans, which included many transplanted Los Angeles residents and liberal Palm Springs, which has a large concentration of LGBTQ voters.

‘Pocketbook issues’ were top concern

In a district anchored in San Diego County, Levin was in a tight contest with Republican Brian Maryott, who also targeted pocketbook issues that were the top concern for voters nationally. Biden campaigned for him just days before Election Day.

California Republicans believed as many as five House districts in the state could swing their way — enough to very likely give the GOP the House gavel in a midterm-election year when voters typically punish the party that holds the White House. Republican Representative Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield would be in line to replace Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.

Democrats hoped to claw back the four seats they surrendered in 2020 and pad their dominance in the state congressional delegation. Republicans hold only 11 of the state’s 53 seats, which drops to 52 seats next year because California’s once-soaring population growth has stalled.

One of the closest contests was for an open seat, the Central Valley’s 13th District, which has a prominent Democratic tilt and a large Latino population. But the most likely voters tend to be white, older, more affluent homeowners, while working-class voters, including many Latinos, are less consistent getting to the polls. Republican John Duarte and Democrat Adam Gray were nearly tied.

In a Democratic-leaning district north of Los Angeles, Republican Representative Mike Garcia was holding a 15-point edge over Democrat Christy Smith in their third consecutive race. Garcia won the previous two.
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US Confident in Integrity of Midterm Elections

A day after the polls closed for the United States’ midterm elections, the government agency charged with leading election security efforts expressed confidence that every vote cast was being counted accurately.

“We have seen no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was any way compromised in any race in the country,” said Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), in a statement Wednesday.

“We can all have confidence in the safety, security, and integrity of our elections,” she added.

The assessment confirmed a sentiment expressed by multiple CISA officials while briefing reporters on Election Day: that they were seeing “no specific or credible threats to disrupt election infrastructure.”

The CISA confirmed that some states had been subjected to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, in which servers are bombarded with multiple requests, causing the targeted websites to shut down.

But a second senior CISA official, who briefed reporters late Tuesday on the condition of anonymity, downplayed the attacks, noting that they did not affect any systems used by voters to cast ballots or have their ballots counted.

“Those websites that have been affected were restored relatively quickly,” the official said, adding, “We’ve not seen any evidence to suggest that these are part of a widespread coordinated campaign.”

One such attack, on public-facing websites for the state of Mississippi, including those with information about the election, was quickly claimed by a Russian hacking group, though state officials and the CISA said it was too early to determine attribution.

Learning from past elections

Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, there had been concerns that key U.S. adversaries might try to disrupt the election with a combination of cyber hacks and ransomware, mimicking tactics like those used by Russia and Iran ahead of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

But U.S. officials expressed confidence that years of preparation and coordination with federal, state and local officials would pay off and prevent any attacks from interfering with the vote.

“We took what we learned in the 2018 and 2020 elections to apply to the 2022 midterm elections,” a spokesperson for the National Security Agency’s Election Security Group told VOA on the condition of anonymity to discuss foreign threats to the elections.

“Our partners have unclassified chatrooms with state and local entities,” the spokesperson said. “If they receive information that might be valuable for the whole-of-government defense, we are able to pivot on those tips in foreign space so we can provide information back to bolster resiliency and help them mitigate issues.”

And in the days before the election, cybersecurity companies such as Trellix told VOA that malicious cyber actors seemed to be more focused on technology and health care companies than on election infrastructure.

According to an initial count by the United States Election Project, approximately 115 million Americans cast ballots in Tuesday’s nationwide election, with some states accepting mail-in ballots for another week.

Equipment malfunctions

Some malfunctions with voting equipment Tuesday in Arizona and New Jersey also sparked rumors and allegations of efforts to rig or fix the election, but state officials and CISA rejected such talk as “just flat-out incorrect.”

“To be very clear, we have no indication of malfeasance or malicious activity,” the second senior CISA official said. “It is a technical issue … and they have resolved it.”

However, the fallout from the voting machine problems, which did not ultimately prevent voters from casting ballots, highlights the challenge facing election officials. With the battle to defend election systems from intrusion and meddling coming to an end, they now must win the fight against disinformation.

“We tend to think of election day as the peak event for disinformation. But for the past two election cycles, the most problematic narratives tend to take hold in the days after the election — especially if the vote counting stretches over a period of days/weeks,” Bret Schafer, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Alliance for Securing Democracy, told VOA via email.

Already, state election officials are trying to get word out that patience will be key.

“Do not fall victim to false information,” the National Association of State Election Directors said in a statement issued early Tuesday, emphasizing that it would take “days and weeks” to finish counting all the votes.

“While the media has called many winners and losers already, these results are not official,” the statement said. “The numbers and margins will change as election officials follow their state laws.”

While officials and experts say much of the election-related disinformation, to this point, has been generated by Americans, the CISA and the FBI warn it is likely that such narratives will be picked up and amplified by key adversaries such as Russia, China and Iran.

All three “will take advantage of sort of election integrity narratives that come up in the U.S. ecosystem,” a senior FBI official, briefing on the condition of anonymity, told reporters last month. “We’ve seen that already, specifically from Russia.”

Only it seems Russia and China have not been as active as anticipated.

“Our analysts are mostly surprised by how quiet things have been on the foreign adversary front — at least with what we can track in the overt space,” Schafer said. “But again, it’s early. If there are things that go sideways, we may see more from them.”

Other analysts caution that foreign adversaries may simply be biding their time.

“Foreign malign influence actors are likely evaluating the success of their influence attempts, measuring which narratives were more successful, and what (if any) impact their influence efforts had on the outcome of the election,” Brian Liston, a senior threat intelligence analyst at Recorded Future’s Insikt Group, told VOA via email.

“This evaluation can then be used to support future influence operations,” he added.
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African Nations Closely Watch US Midterm Results

With control of Congress still undecided a day after the U.S. midterm elections, African leaders and political analysts are closely watching for signs of what impact the outcome could have on the continent.

African analysts say their biggest concern is how this contentious poll could affect U.S. standing around the world — especially in African nations that have seen democratic backsliding.

There are also economic concerns over how the U.S. responds to rising inflation around the world. Wednesday trading showed that African markets were closely watching the impact on the most popular U.S. export: the dollar.

On a more personal level, communities in the U.S. and in Africa celebrated wins by American candidates of African origin, and bid goodbye to two retiring senators who took a deep interest in the continent.

U.S. democracy matters abroad

African political analyst Ebenezer Obadare told VOA that policymakers on the continent were most focused on possible fallout that could affect Washington’s global standing.

“Political polarization in the U.S. — and the subsequent ripples — has deepened anxiety about the prospects of democracy globally,” said Obadare, an analyst from the Council on Foreign Relations. “For one thing, many African policymakers are worried that, depending on the outcome, the U.S. may not be in a situation to pursue the goals outlined in the recently launched U.S. strategy towards sub-Saharan Africa.”

In August, the Biden administration launched that strategy saying it “welcomes and affirms African agency and seeks to include and elevate African voices in the most consequential global conversations.”

Obadare says he’s more worried about the U.S. losing its own voice amid divisive political rhetoric or politically motivated unrest.

“Right now, much more than material support for transitioning countries, Africa needs the U.S. itself to remain democratic,” Obadare said. “There is genuine worry that if the elections get messy or are inconclusive, the U.S. might lose its gravitas and the moral authority to intervene in the political process in Africa and other developing regions.”

African wins

The midterms saw wins by multiple candidates of African origin, which were welcomed in both the diaspora community and on the continent.

Those include at least eight female Somali-American candidates who, along with one Somali-American man, won national and local-level races in Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio and Maine; at least eight Nigerian-American candidates who won in Georgia and the District of Columbia; and others with close ties to the continent, such as Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado, who is the son of Eritrean immigrants.

The most prominent of those victors is Somalia-born Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, who was handily re-elected to her seat in Minnesota’s 5th district.

Her success abroad stands in stark contrast to her counterparts in Somalia, such as Fawzia Yusuf Haji Adam, the only female presidential candidate who contested the nation’s May 15 election. She got only one vote — her own.

“This is a victory for Somali women in the diaspora,” Adam said. “I congratulate them, I encourage them, and we are proud of them.”

Goodbye to some Africa hands

The midterms also saw the departure of two retiring Republican senators who have taken an interest in Africa: Senators Jim Inhofe, of Oklahoma, and Rob Portman of Ohio.

Inhofe recently concluded his final congressional trip to the continent, in which he visited Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda. He said he was confident that the continent would continue to receive attention from U.S. lawmakers.

“It is bittersweet to visit Africa one last time before my departure from the U.S. Senate,”Inhofe said, urging continued U.S. military presence in East Africa.

“The presence of U.S. military across Africa, while small, means a great deal to our friends and is a worthwhile investment for the United States. In each country, it was clear that a strong and robust relationship with the United States has helped spur economic growth and regional stability across the continent. I have faith that my colleagues in the House and Senate will continue the U.S.-Africa friendship long after I have retired from the Senate.”

Overall, said Mvemba Phezo Dizolele, director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, this election won’t negatively affect U.S. engagement. He cited what he described as “strong supporters of Africa” in the committees on Foreign Relations and Appropriations, such as Sens. Chris Coons, James Risch and Lindsey Graham.

“Overall, the midterms will not change much with regard to U.S. engagement with Africa,” he said. “Africa will continue to command a bipartisan engagement in the foreseeable future both in the lower chamber and the Senate.”

Harun Maruf contributed to this report.
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As Votes are Counted, Trump-backed Candidates See Mixed Results

How did candidates endorsed by former President Donald Trump fare in the U.S. midterm elections?  Mike O’Sullivan reports, the results were mixed as the votes were counted early Wednesday morning.
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Control of House, Senate Too Close to Call

The fate of U.S. President Joe Biden’s policy aspirations for the remainder of his first term hangs in the balance as the country awaits midterm election results that will determine which political party controls Congress for the next two years.

Several key Senate races were too close to call early Wednesday while incumbents are faring well in others. Election officials across the country have cautioned it could take days before the results of some contests are definitive.

Overall, an anticipated Republican red wave appears to be a trickle with the opposition party picking up fewer than expected seats in the House of Representatives although it could win enough to take control of the lower chamber.

All 435 seats in the House are at stake and 35 of the 100 seats in the Senate are being contested. The Senate is currently evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, with Vice President Kamala Harris able to cast tie-breaking votes for the Democrats, so Republicans need to pick up only one seat to take the majority.

Typically, parties that control both the executive and legislative branches of government lose seats during midterm elections. Many Congressional district have boundaries that have been drawn to give an undue advantage to either Republicans or Democrats, making it difficult for opposition party challengers to unseat incumbents.

More than 45 million people cast their ballots in early, in-person or mail-in voting before Tuesday’s official Election Day. Some analysts suggest the total vote in contests across the country could top the record 115 million tally set in the 2018 midterm elections.

Voters in many states also had questions on their ballots, including the legal status of abortion, sports betting and marijuana. Voters in California, Michigan and Vermont approved initiatives enshrining abortion rights in the states’ constitutions. Maryland voters decided to make cannabis legal, but in several other states similar proposals appear headed for defeat.

History was made in two states. Maryland elected its first Black governor, Wes Moore, a Democrat. Massachusetts will have its first female governor and the country’s first openly lesbian chief executive of a state, Maura Healey, also a Democrat.

In Arkansas, former Trump White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican, was elected governor as expected. Her father, Mike Huckabee, served as governor of the state for a decade.

In one key state contest for governor, Florida’s Ron DeSantis easily won reelection. Some Republicans are pushing DeSantis to oppose former President Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and he has not ruled out a possible run for the White House.

Trump, a Florida resident, said he voted for DeSantis on Tuesday in the state’s gubernatorial contest but has publicly been disparaging a possible DeSantis run for the White House. On the eve of the election, at a rally in Ohio, Trump said he would make a big announcement on November 15, which political analysts expect will be the launch of his 2024 presidential bid.

Officials in two Republican-controlled states, Missouri and Florida, refused to let federal Justice Department officials inside polling locations to monitor voting for possible voting rights violations. Top election officials for the two states questioned the Justice Department’s authority to have observers inside precincts.

Both Republican and Democratic parties monitored polls in many places across the United States to watch for any perceived irregularities, although actual fraud in U.S. elections is minuscule. The Justice Department is also monitoring compliance with federal voting rights laws in 24 states other than Missouri and Florida.

Economy, abortion on voters’ minds

In a recent Pew Research Center poll, more than three-quarters of U.S. voters said the economy was their top concern this election.

“The interest rates, the housing market, the price of gas, you know, you’re noticing in the grocery stores food is very, very expensive, and there’s items that you can’t even find anymore. It’s a huge, huge concern,” Amanda Douglas, a voter in the southeastern state of Georgia, told VOA.

After the U.S. Supreme Court decision in June ending the federal right to abortion, social issues have also motivated some voters.

“I think everybody should have access to health care [regardless of] what your personal views are on Roe v. Wade or abortion,” Georgia voter Theresa Allmend told VOA.

In Georgia, a very tight race between incumbent Democrat Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker could be headed for a runoff if neither candidate captures 50 percent of the votes. Senate races early Wednesday also remain too close to call in Arizona and Nevada.

‘Inflection point’

Predicting a Republican victory in the House, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the odds-on favorite to become House speaker if Republicans hold a majority, has promised to look for spending cuts in government programs favored by Biden.

He told CNN that Republican lawmakers would also more closely scrutinize continued U.S. arms and financial aid for Ukraine to combat Russia’s invasion, now in its ninth month.

Since the war started, Biden, with little congressional debate, has sent more than $27 billion in munitions and humanitarian assistance to the Kyiv government. But McCarthy said Republicans are unwilling to fund a continuing “blank check” without more analysis of what Ukraine specifically needs most.

Other Republican lawmakers have promised to launch investigations of the Biden administration’s performance during the first two years of his term, especially the ongoing influx of thousands of undocumented migrants across the southern border with Mexico that Biden, like former President Donald Trump, has been unable to halt.

Some Republican legislators are calling for hearings on business activities conducted by the president’s son, Hunter Biden, in Ukraine and China. U.S. prosecutors have already been conducting an investigation of the younger Biden’s business operations but have not brought any charges.

Meanwhile, Democrats have accused Republicans of planning to cut popular health care and pension benefits for older Americans if they take control of Congress, or subject them to regular five-year funding reviews.

Both Biden and Trump campaigned respectively in recent weeks for Democratic and Republican candidates. Trump, who was ousted from office in 2020, still falsely claims he was cheated out of reelection by vote count irregularities.

The U.S. Department of Justice and a Georgia state prosecutor are conducting wide-ranging criminal investigations of his election-related actions before leaving office and during the aftermath of his presidency.

Biden, who termed Tuesday’s election an “inflection point” in U.S. democracy, also has said he plans to run for reelection in two years but has yet to make a formal declaration.

The president has attacked Republican “election denier” candidates who, adopting Trump’s refrain, have refused to accept the legitimacy of Biden’s victory two years ago.

The president has also contended that the economy remains strong, adding that hundreds of thousands of jobs have been added over the past year even as consumer prices have risen at the fastest pace in four decades. He has touted congressional passage of a massive infrastructure construction measure he proposed, although it has not proved to be an issue that voters have cared much about.

Katherine Gypson, Masood Farivar, and Ken Bredemeier contributed to this report. Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Inflation, Abortion Top Issues for US Midterm Voters, Exit Poll Finds

Inflation and abortion topped the list of issues motivating U.S. voters in Tuesday’s midterm elections, followed by crime, immigration and gun policy, an exit poll conducted by Edison Research showed.

Turnout for the midterms, which will determine control of Congress and a number of state governorships, was about evenly divided between men and women, according to the poll.

The following is a summary of some of the survey’s latest findings:

About 6 out of 10 voters said they were "dissatisfied or angry" about the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v Wade, and about the same percentage said abortion should be legal.
About 3 out of 10 voters said inflation was their top concern in deciding how to vote.
About 3 out of 10 voters said abortion was their top concern in deciding how to vote.
About 1 out of 10 voters said crime was their top concern in deciding how to vote.
About 1 out of 10 voters said immigration was their top concern in deciding how to vote.
About 1 out of 10 voters said gun policy was their top concern in deciding how to vote.
About 8 out of 10 voters said the economy was "not so good or poor" versus about 2 of 10 who said it was "excellent or good."
About 6 out of 10 voters said gasoline prices had caused them a financial hardship recently.
About 6 out of 10 voters said abortion should be legal vs. 4 of 10 who said it should be illegal.
About 5 out of 10 voters said their family's financial situation was worse than it was two years ago, while 3 of 10 said it was unchanged and 2 of 10 said it was better.
About 7 out of 10 voters said U.S. democracy was threatened.
About 7 out of 10 voters said they would not like to see President Joe Biden run for a second term.
About 6 out of 10 voters held an unfavorable opinion of Trump and 4 out 10 held a favorable opinion.
About half of voters approved of Biden's student loan forgiveness plan, roughly the same as those who disapproved.

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In Photos: 2022 US Midterm Elections

Millions of Americans cast their ballots in congressional elections that will determine the philosophical shape of Congress and set the tone for the Washington political debate during the second half of Democratic President Joe Biden’s four-year term.
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Afghan Americans Voting With Eye Toward Afghan Refugee Issues

 Some Afghan Americans who live in northern Virginia are determined to vote in the midterm elections, saying that U.S. foreign policy toward Afghanistan and immigration are most important to them. Matiullah Abid Noor and Shahnaz Nafees have the story. Roshan Noorzai contributed to this report.
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As Midterm Elections Near, Twitter Turmoil Raises Misinformation Concerns

Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter comes as the U.S. holds midterm elections this week, with observers warning that online misinformation about the credibility of the electoral process can have real-world effects. Is Twitter, under Musk, ready? Tina Trinh reports. Michelle Quinn contributed.
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Republicans, Democrats File Over 100 Lawsuits in Run-up to Midterms

In the run-up to Tuesday’s midterms, Republicans and Democrats have filed dozens of lawsuits in battleground states that hold the key to control of the U.S. Congress.

The lawsuits challenge various rules governing the elections, with the bulk focused on the casting and counting of mail-in ballots that have grown in popularity in recent years.

As of Monday, a total of 128 election and voting-related lawsuits have been filed so far in 2022, according to Democracy Docket, a left-leaning voting rights organization that tracks election litigation. Of the total, 71 seek to restrict access to voting, while the rest aim to expand or protect voting, Democracy Docket says.

A September analysis by Democracy Docket showed that Republicans accounted for slightly more than half of the lawsuits filed this year.

Sylvia Albert, Director of Voting and Elections at Common Cause, a nonpartisan watchdog and advocacy organization, said the extraordinary amount of litigation will likely make this midterm the most litigious election in recent memory, after only the 2020 presidential race.

“It is routine for there to be a small amount of lawsuits filed on both sides to get an edge,” Albert said. “What’s different this time around is the sheer amount of lawsuits, and the obvious attempt to disenfranchise voters and undermine people’s faith in elections.”

In 2020, Democracy Docket tracked 68 lawsuits filed before Election Day.

Hans von Spakovsky, manager of the election law reform initiative at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the Republican lawsuits merely seek compliance with the law.

“My understanding is that the lawsuits that are being filed are simply asking courts to order state officials to comply with state law,” von Spakovsky said.

Democracy Docket says Republicans have filed a record number of election-related lawsuits this year, with the majority seeking to limit mail-in voting.

Voting by mail surged during the 2020 presidential election. But Republican-controlled states have since adopted measures to limit the practice, saying that mail-in voting is susceptible to fraud.

Republicans have had some success challenging voting by mail this year.

In Wisconsin, where Republican Senator Ron Johnson faces a tough challenge from the state’s Democratic lieutenant governor, local courts last week sided with Republicans, ruling that county clerks could not accept mail-in ballots with partial addresses of witnesses.

In Pennsylvania, where a Senate seat vacated by a Republican is up for grabs, the state Supreme Court last week approved a Republican request that election officials not count undated or incorrectly dated mail-in ballots.

But in Michigan, a judge Monday dismissed a lawsuit brought by a Republican candidate who asked the court to require all voters in Detroit to get absentee ballots in person or vote in person.

Albert of Common Cause said the current litigation over the counting of absentee ballots will likely extend into the post-election canvass and certification period, delaying the results of some close races.

“Especially in states where absentee ballots could swing the results,” Albert said. “We continue to reiterate that Election Day is not results day, and we may be waiting quite a while for final counts.”

Post-election court battles will likely involve many aspects of the elections. In addition to the counting and processing of mail-in ballots, Democracy Docket says it expects legal challenges to voters’ eligibility, intimidation of voters and election workers, conspiracy theories about electronic voting machines and counties that refuse to certify their election results.
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US Officials Hope Confidence Campaign Pays Off for Midterm Elections

U.S. voters and election security officials are bracing for potential disruptions, meddling and even violence as millions of Americans head to the polls Tuesday to cast ballots in the country’s midterm elections.

According to a recent Economist/YouGov poll, just over half of Americans (51%) say violence at polling places is somewhat or very likely.

The poll, which surveyed 1,500 adults between October 29 and November 1, found just as many (51%) believe there will be interference by foreign countries.

A separate YouGov poll from July found 32% of those surveyed had little to no confidence in the results of the midterms.

“I would say I have concerns about the system,” an Arizona voter named Fred, who declined to share his last name, told VOA. “Who’s to say that they count all the votes properly?”

Despite such skepticism, the message from U.S. election officials has been consistent.

“Americans should go to the ballot box with confidence,” Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Election Security Agency (CISA), told a cybersecurity forum late last month.

“There’s been an incredible amount of work done across the board to be able to secure our election infrastructure,” she said, sharing a message that has since been echoed by Homeland Security officials and even the White House.

Yet U.S. officials also acknowledge the threats to Tuesday’s elections are serious and are being treated with proper caution.

Violence

The country’s Homeland Security officials began sounding the alarm about potential election-related violence as far back as February, repeating the warning in an updated National Terrorism Advisory System (NTAS) Bulletin in June.

“We assess that calls for violence by domestic violent extremists directed at democratic institutions, political candidates, party offices, election events, and election workers will likely increase,” the bulletin said.

More recent intelligence assessments by U.S. officials caution the greatest threat is posed by so-called “lone wolves” – angry or aggrieved individuals who decide to act on their own.

Likely targets range from election-related infrastructure, such as polling places and ballot drop boxes, to election workers, voters and even political candidates and rallies.

Adding to the concern is the growing use of militaristic language and imagery in U.S.-based disinformation campaigns, some of which is being amplified by U.S. adversaries such as Russia.

“The influence attempts … do not directly encourage people to undertake violent actions, but very likely lay the groundwork and allude to some physical action,” Brian Liston, a senior threat intelligence analyst for the cybersecurity firm Recorded Future, told VOA by email.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has received more than 1,000 reports of threats against election officials since June 2021, leading to at least six arrests, according to senior officials.

Almost 60% of the reported threats came from seven states – Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Wisconsin. All either ran audits or saw considerable debate about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election.

Disinformation

Concerns about disinformation campaigns and influence operations have been increasing steadily in the run-up to the midterm elections.

U.S. officials and researchers believe the majority of disinformation is originating domestically, citing a rise in anti-government and anti-authority sentiment within the U.S.

But they warn there has been a concerted effort by multiple U.S. adversaries to seize on lingering doubts about the election system itself.

Russia, China and Iran “will take advantage of sort of election integrity narratives that come up in the U.S. ecosystem,” a senior FBI official said last month while briefing reporters. “We’ve seen that already, specifically from Russia.”

The cybersecurity firm Recorded Future has further warned that Russia and China resurrected dormant social media accounts to amplify doubt and deepen U.S. political divisions ahead of the midterm elections.

In the case of Russia, several of the resurrected accounts targeted audiences on social media platforms like Gab and Gettr that cater to conservative audiences, Recorded Future said.

Recorded Future said China’s influence operations, such as a campaign that began this past September, span platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Douyin, described as a Chinese-language version of TikTok.

“Many of these [posts and comments] appear to criticize both the Republican and Democrat parties and promote extreme views on both sides,” the Recorded Future report said.

China has consistently denied allegations it has used and is using influence operations to meddle in U.S. elections.

But on Monday, a key confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin contradicted previous denials from the Kremlin, confessing to ongoing election meddling.

“We have interfered, we are interfering, and we will continue to interfere,” Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Russian social media. “Carefully, accurately, surgically and in our own way, as we know how to do.”

Additional research has warned of likely disinformation campaigns aimed at discrediting voting system manufacturers. 

CISA, the lead federal agency for election security, has pushed back against disinformation efforts with social media campaigns pointing voters to trusted voices – state and local election officials.

CISA has also updated its rumor control website, set up to debunk election-related disinformation and conspiracy theories.

Cyber threats

Despite concerns that adversaries such as Russia, China and Iran may try to disrupt the election with a combination of cyber hacks and ransomware, U.S. officials have expressed confidence the risks are low.

“There is no information credible or specific about efforts to disrupt or compromise that election infrastructure” CISA Director Jen Easterly said last week.

Other CISA officials have said the agency, along with state and local partners, has continued to build on security measures from the 2020 U.S. elections to better secure election systems, and systems and databases related to elections, such as those that keep track of registered voters.

At the same time, U.S. Cyber Command has been directing its teams to look for potential attacks but has repeatedly said it is not finding new threats.

That aligns with the findings of multiple cybersecurity firms, which have said most of what they have seen, so far, is “pretty basic.”

“There is a continued focus on state election officials. However, it’s kind of a low-tech approach. It’s very much focused on the user itself, phishing and trying to bait them into surrendering their credentials,” Pat Flynn, head of the Advanced Programs Group at Trellix, told VOA.

“I don’t see any indications that any sort of technology is compromised, or we should lose confidence in the election system,” he added.

Still, CISA has warned it is possible hackers may try to go after systems that will make voting more difficult, possibly by trying to take down power stations or by hitting local government websites with ransomware.

But Easterly has cautioned that just because there are problems, it does not mean there is an attack.

“There are going to be errors. There are going to be glitches. It happens in every election,” she said.

“Somebody will forget their key to the polling place. A water pipe will burst … These are normal things. They’re not nefarious.”
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Republicans Show Late Gains as Election Enters Final Days

With just days to go before the 2022 midterm elections, and control of both houses of Congress and many important state-level offices on the line, momentum appears to be swinging in favor of the Republican Party.

For several months in the middle of 2022, Democrats had allowed themselves to hope that this year they might escape the usual fate of the president’s party during midterms — an almost inevitable loss of seats in Congress.

A Supreme Court ruling that did away with a constitutional right to abortion, and a series of high-profile hearings illuminating the role former President Trump played in the January 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol seemed to invigorate Democratic voters, who showed up in record numbers for a number of state-level elections over the summer.

However, with the nation struggling under levels of inflation not seen in a generation and Democratic President Joe Biden’s approval rating well below 50%, late polling shows Republicans making gains across a variety of races.

Fundamentals ‘assert themselves’

While conceding that 2022 had been a “topsy-turvy year,” Kyle Kondik, the managing editor of Sabato’s Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, told VOA the late change “aligns with what usually happens in [the] midterms.”

He said, “Particularly when you’ve got a president with poor numbers, sometimes the fundamentals just assert themselves.”

William A. Galston, a senior fellow in the Brookings Institution’s Governance Studies Program, told VOA that he agrees that Republicans appear to be enjoying a late surge, but said that shouldn’t be seen as a surprise.

“It’s important to understand that there is nothing unusual about this,” he said. “Indeed, it would be unusual if it weren’t happening. What also seems clear is that the themes that Republicans have emphasized increasingly during this campaign have turned out to be the issues that are top of mind for voters.”

Galston added, “By contrast, the Democratic Party’s agenda has appealed more to core Democrats than to anyone else. Core Democrats care a lot about abortion. They care a lot about threats to democracy, as they understand those threats. But the Republican focus on inflation and crime and to a lesser extent immigration, particularly in border states, has proved more effective.”

Limited competition in House races

In the House of Representatives, control goes to the party that holds a majority of the 435 seats. Currently, the Democrats hold 220 seats, only two more than the 218 required for a bare majority.

Because of the already tight margin of control in the House, even a small pickup by Republicans would be enough to give them control of the chamber, a result that most election observers have been confidently predicting for months.

In the elections for the 435 seats that make up the House of Representatives, the vast majority of races are not considered competitive at all. Over the course of many years, through a process known as “gerrymandering,” House districts have been drawn in such a way that most heavily favor members of one party or another.

Bad numbers for Democrats

For example, in its most recent analysis of the races, the Cook Political Report rates a total of 347 House seats as “solid” for one party or the other, with Republicans maintaining an advantage of 188 to 159.

Among the remainder, Cook Political rates 13 as “likely” Democratic wins and 11 as likely Republican wins, while another 16 seats “lean” Democratic and another 13 lean Republican.

Assuming all those races go as expected, that leaves Republicans with 212 seats and Democrats with 188.

This leaves a total of 35 races where the outcome remains in doubt. The GOP would need only win six out of that total to take control, but they are expected to pick up significantly more than that.

Close contest for Senate

The 100 seats in the Senate are currently split evenly between Republicans on one side and Democrats and Independents who caucus with them on the other. The Democrats hold control of the chamber only because Vice President Kamala Harris has the authority to cast tie-breaking votes when the body is deadlocked.

In the Senate, only about one-third of the seats are contested in any given federal election, because Senators serve six-year terms. This year there are 35 seats on the ballot, 14 currently held by Democrats and 21 by Republicans.

The distribution of seats up for election would appear to favor Democrats, who are defending fewer seats, but most analysts believe that the balance of power in the Senate will be decided by just four close races. Three of those involve seats currently held by Democrats, while the fourth is an open seat being vacated by retiring Pennsylvania Republican Pat Toomey.

Key races

In Georgia, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock, who took office in 2021 after winning a special election to fill a seat left vacant by an incumbent’s resignation, is running to win a full term. He is being challenged by Herschel Walker, a former football star and political neophyte. Polling in the final week before the election showed a race with a result too close to call.

Sen. Mark Kelly, a first-term Arizona Democrat, is locked in a battle with Republican Blake Masters, a former venture capitalist. Kelly has led in polling throughout the race, but Masters has steadily eroded the incumbent’s advantage. While Kelly appears to remain ahead, the race is still considered extremely close.

In New Mexico, incumbent Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto is being challenged by State Attorney General Adam Laxalt, a Republican. Polling in the race has been relatively sparse, making it difficult to assess any late movement among voters, but Laxalt appears to hold a small lead.

Controversy in Pennsylvania

Possibly the most controversial Senate race in the nation is taking place in Pennsylvania, over Toomey’s empty seat. Lieutenant Gov. John Fetterman is contesting with former television personality Dr. Mehmet Oz. In the early stages of the races, the discussion was dominated by the fact that Oz is a relative newcomer to the state, having lived primarily in neighboring New Jersey until shortly before the election.

However, in May, Fetterman suffered a stroke, leaving him with what the campaign describes as an “auditory processing disorder” that makes it difficult for him to quickly respond to spoken questions. The disorder was evident in a late debate between the two candidates, in which Fetterman plainly struggled to answer some questions.

The Oz campaign and its surrogates have raised questions about Fetterman’s ability to perform the duties of a senator, and in the final weeks of the campaign, polls that had consistently shown Fetterman in the lead have tightened considerably, with some showing Oz in the lead.
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US Candidates Make Final Push Ahead of Midterm Elections

Tuesday’s midterm elections in the United States will determine whether Democrats maintain majorities or if Republicans seize power in the House of Representatives and the Senate, both of which are up for grabs. With some Republican candidates already crying foul on so-called election integrity, nonpartisan groups are keeping a close eye on the process. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.
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Biden, Trump Push Pennsylvania US Senate Candidates Ahead of Midterms

U.S. President Joe Biden told voters in Pennsylvania that a Democratic loss in Tuesday’s midterm elections would have “decades” of consequences, while Republicans including his predecessor Donald Trump predicted a sweeping victory.

The biggest names in U.S. politics — Biden, Trump and former President Barack Obama — visited Pennsylvania on Saturday, hoping to tip the balance in a pivotal midterm Senate race between Democratic Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman and Republican celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz.

“Folks, three days, three days until one of the most important elections in our lifetime. The outcome is going to shape our country for decades to come, and the power to shape that outcome is in your hands,” Biden told supporters at Temple University in Philadelphia.

“It’s a choice. A choice between two vastly different visions of America,” he said.

At a rally in Latrobe, southeast of Pittsburgh, Trump listed a litany of grievances with Democrats, ranging from the party’s handling of inflation to education curricula his supporters view as too progressive.

“If you want to stop the destruction of our country and save the American Dream then this Tuesday you must vote Republican in a giant way,” Trump said.

Trump, who sources say is preparing to launch a third consecutive run for the White House, continues to falsely claim that his 2020 defeat by Biden was the result of widespread fraud. Multiple courts, state agencies and members of his own administration have rejected that claim as untrue.

Still, opinion polls show a significant number of Republican voters accept the claim, as do many candidates for Congress, governor and state offices overseeing election administration.

“We are going to take back that beautiful house,” Trump said of the 2024 presidential race.

‘Dangerous climate’

Speaking to supporters in downtown Pittsburgh, Obama warned the politically motivated attack last week on Democratic House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul, was a product of hateful rhetoric.

“This habit we have of demonizing political opponents, of saying crazy stuff, it creates a dangerous climate,” Obama said, without referencing Republicans directly.

Republicans contend that Democrats have also engaged in political violence, citing the widespread anti-racism protests that rocked the country in 2020. On Sunday, they criticized Democrats for failing to keep their focus on inflation and crime, two of voters’ principal concerns, according to most polls.

In a pair of Saturday morning Twitter posts, Oz criticized Fetterman and Biden for failing to sufficiently support the domestic energy industry and pledged to fight inflation if elected.

“As your next Senator, I will focus on issues that matter to voters in all communities including lowering prices on everything from gas to groceries,” he wrote.

Trump readies another run

Trump, who was in Pennsylvania to boost support for Republican Senate nominee, Oz, and Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano, is also working to maintain his own profile as he contemplates another White House run.

That could set the stage for a Biden-Trump rematch, though some Democrats say heavy losses for Biden’s party Tuesday could increase pressure on the president to step aside and let someone else carry the party’s mantle in 2024.

The Fetterman-Oz Senate race is one of three critical contests, along with Georgia and Nevada, that will determine whether Democrats hold onto their razor-thin majority in the Senate, and with it the power to confirm Biden’s nominees to posts ranging from his Cabinet to the Supreme Court.

Nonpartisan election forecasters and polls show Republicans are heavy favorites to win control of the House, with the Senate a toss-up. Control of even one would give Republicans the power to block Biden’s legislative agenda and launch potentially damaging investigations.

In Philadelphia, Biden warned that Republicans would attack Americans’ Social Security benefits if they won and that they would work to undo recent legislation designed to bring down prescription drug prices.

“They want to get rid of everything we just did,” Biden said.

More than 39 million Americans have already cast ballots, either in person or by mail, according to the U.S. Elections Project. Election officials have warned that it could take days after Tuesday for final results to be clear in closely contested elections, such as the Pennsylvania and Georgia Senate races.

Both parties have lavished attention on Pennsylvania both because of the strategic importance of the race and because of its voters’ history of swinging from one party to the other in the past four presidential elections.

Fetterman held a commanding lead in the race throughout the summer, which Oz has whittled away in the last two months.

Some factors may be local: A stroke this spring forced Fetterman to scale back his campaign schedule and has affected his speech. At a debate last month, he often stumbled over his words, in a performance even allies privately described as shaky.

But Oz’s gains also reflect a nationwide momentum shift in favor of Republicans, as voters’ focus on inflation and crime has proven more durable than concerns about abortion. Democrats’ early lead in several other Senate races, including the contests in Georgia and Nevada, have also shrunk or evaporated completely in recent weeks.
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 VOA Immigration Weekly Recap, Oct. 30–Nov. 5

Editor’s note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com. 

Analysts Don’t Expect Significant Changes in Immigration Policy After the Midterms  

Despite the record influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and a shortage of workers in the United States, experts believe immigration policy will remain unchanged after the midterm elections. Some experts say that if Republicans take control of Congress, President Joe Biden likely will turn to the administrative process to accomplish any immigration changes. Story by VOA’s immigration reporter Aline Barros. 

US Migrant Busing Highlights Immigration Policies Ahead of Midterms 

Republican governors of Florida and Texas have been trying to highlight the record number of migrants arriving at the southern U.S. border by sending thousands of people seeking political asylum to Washington, New York and other places run by Democrats. Aron Ranen reports from New York City on the bused-in arrivals and their possible political impact ahead of November’s midterm elections. 

Climate Migration: Alaska Village Resists Despite Threats 

Search online for the little town of Shishmaref, and you’ll see homes perilously close to the ocean and headlines that warn this Native community in western Alaska is on the verge of disappearing. Climate change is partially to blame for the rising seas, flooding, erosion and loss of protective ice and land that are threatening this Inupiat village of about 600 people just a few miles from the Arctic Circle. But the dire situation is only part of the story. Report by the Associated Press.  

Texas: What International Migration Means for Its Politics 

Since 2010, the population of the U.S. state of Texas has grown rapidly, including in the Houston metro area, which has seen an influx of migrants from Latin America and Asia. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has more on what draws people to the state and how the newcomers are shaping Texas politics. 

Migration Around the World  

Australia Repatriates 17 Citizens From Syrian Camps  

Four women and 13 children were repatriated to Australia on Saturday, having languished for years in squalid Syrian detention camps after the downfall of the Islamic State. It was the first in a series of planned missions to bring back about 20 Australian women and 40 children — the wives, sons and daughters of vanquished IS fighters — from the notorious al-Hol and Roj camps. Reported by Agence France-Presse.  

Malaysia Mulls Closing UN Refugee Agency Office, Sparking Refoulement Fears 

Malaysia says it is considering plans to shutter the local office of the United Nations’ refugee agency, amid accusations the government is forcibly returning Burmese asylum-seekers who have fled Myanmar for their lives. Reported by Zsombor Peter.  

Ukrainian Refugees Find Work, Shelter in Bulgarian Film Studio 

After fleeing Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, two women found themselves in an unlikely shelter: Nu Boyana Film Studios in Sofia, Bulgaria. Tatiana Vorozhko has the story. VOA footage by Svitlana Koval. Video editing – Kostiantyn Golubchyk. 

News in Brief  

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced limited implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) under the new final rule. “Since its inception in 2012, DACA has allowed over 800,000 young people to remain with their families in the only country many of them have ever known and continue to contribute to their communities in the United States.”
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