Image source, Getty Images

Trump has just released a short video on the Republicans' X page, calling on voters who are currently standing in line waiting to cast their ballots to stay in line - even after polls have closed.

"Hi Republicans. We're doing really well. If you're in line, stay in line," says Trump.

State voting rules say that voters who are already queuing when polls close can still vote as long as they wait for their turn.

"We're gonna win it big," Trump adds.

Carl Nasman
Reporting from Atlanta, Georgia

Well, that didn't take long.

Only about 40 minutes after the polls closed in Georgia, massive cheers rippled through the Georgia Democrats watch party as Senator Jon Ossoff was projected to win his race against Republican challenger Mike Collins.

Only a year ago Ossoff was considered vulnerable, but we have seen first hand the enthusiasm on the ground for him and his party across the state.

Now the question will be if it is a sign of things to come across the country tonight.

"Tonight's results are a wake-up call," Chris Pappas says in a speech as he celebrates his victory.

Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent in Washington DC

Image source, Getty Images

Florida, whose polls closed just over an hour ago, is typically very efficient at counting ballots. And there are already signs that tonight the state, which had been trending towards conservatives in recent elections, is a front-line battleground.

BBC media partner CBS is currently rating the governor’s election between David Jolly and Republican Congressman Byron Donalds as a "toss-up" with 80% of the vote recorded.

There are also signs that Democrats are outperforming past Florida elections at the House level despite state Republicans redrawing congressional district lines last year to make the map more favourable to their candidates.

Republican Congresswoman Marie Salazar, for instance, leads her opponent by a fraction of a percent with an estimated 95% of the votes counted. In 2024, she won her Miami-area district, with its large Hispanic population, by more than 15 points. Early this year, she aired a television advert criticising Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement policy – a sign of the shifting mood in her district.

There are other House seats in the state that Democrats have been more optimistic about winning in recent days. They’ve already held two seats that Republicans were targeting, for Representatives Kathy Castor and Jared Moskowitz. If Salazar is in a dogfight, that’s encouraging news across the board for Democrats in the sunshine state.

Chris Jeavans
Data journalist

We've been bringing you the results from a big survey of the US electorate, that asks people for their opinions and concerns about the country.

Here's what we learned in the first drop of data from the major poll of voters:

• Economy and the state of democracy are voters' top concerns
• A majority have a negative view of the state of the economy and almost two thirds say that President Trump’s policies have worsened economic conditions in the US
• More than four in 10 people say their family is worse off than two years ago and six in 10 say they are “very concerned” about the cost of petrol and the cost of food
• Six in 10 also say higher prices are more because of Trump’s policies than outside factors

Looking at other issues:

• Six in 10 also say the US made the "wrong decision" in taking military action against Iran and separately, three-quarters say the conflict was a “crucial or major factor” in their vote for Congress
• A large majority, 90%, also said that government corruption was a crucial or major factor in their vote
• Six in 10 say they disapprove of the way Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is handling its job
• A majority were confident that the election was being conducted fairly and accurately

The data comes from pollsters SSRS who have interviewed tens of thousands of voters across the US.

• Read more about the data here

As we've been reporting, several more projections have just come in for a number of races where the results were expected.

Let's take a look at where things stand:

• In Delaware, Democrat Chris Coons is projected to hold onto his Senate seat
• Same with Illinois, where Democratic candidate Juliana Stratton is projected to win the Senate seat
• In Massachusetts, Democrat Senator Edward J Markey has held onto his seat
• In Rhode Island, Democratic Senator Jack Reed has also held onto his seat
• Democratic Senator for New Jersey Cory Booker is projected to have held onto his seat too

As polls have begun to close, the BBC's US partner CBS News is rating some more key Senate races that will decide control of Congress.

Florida: Toss up

Maine: Toss up

We've just had a flurry of results come in, though they are coming from Senate races where the outcome was expected.

Democrats are projected by the Associated Press to win the Senate seats in Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey.

Polls are now closing in Connecticut, Alabama, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Washington DC, Mississippi, Kansas and Tennessee.

As a reminder, there are toss-up Senate races in Kansas, Texas, Michigan and Maine, all contests that we are closely following.

Freya Scott-Turner
Live reporter

Things are starting to get interesting. Polls have closed in multiple states and we've had a couple of early results. Let's get up to speed:

• Hot-button issues revealed in voter poll: A survey of the US electorate showed that the economy and the state of democracy were voters' top concerns - we've got more from that data in our earlier post
• The findings from this voter poll might give Democrats a bit of comfort, for now - says our North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher
• First polls closed: Voting is done in Kentucky, Indiana, Florida, South Carolina, Vermont and Virginia, Georgia, New Hampshire, Ohio, North Carolina and West Virginia
• Early results: CBS News is projecting that Democratic Senator Mark R. Warner will hold onto his seat - an expected outcome - while the Georgia Senate race has been projected to go to Democratic incumbent Jon Ossoff
• White House reaction: An official at the White House, where there is a results viewing party in the East Room with Republican President Donald Trump, tells the BBC that the mood there is "cautiously optimistic"

Ossoff's victory is expected - but Republicans had hoped for a closer resultpublished at 00:51 GMT

00:51 GMT

Daniel Bush
Washington correspondent

Image source, Reuters

Less than one hour after polls closed in Georgia, we now have a projected winner: Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff.

His victory was not unexpected - Ossoff had a comfortable lead in the polls over his Republican challenger, Rep Mike Collins, heading into election day.

But Republicans had still hoped this would be a more competitive race. It’s a state that has voted reliably red for decades. President Donald Trump won it in 2024, after Joe Biden eked out a narrow win there in 2020.

An easy win by Ossoff in Georgia could portend a good night for Democrats, though it’s still too early to know.

And now that Ossoff has won re-election, the speculation surrounding his 2028 plan will ramp up in earnest.

The Georgia Democrat is considered a potential leading contender if he throws his hat in the ring. Tonight he’ll surely focus on his Senate win. But he’ll soon face questions on his White House ambitions.

Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from Washington DC

Grab a snack if you need to - because the next hour is an important one to stick around for.

Polls will be closing in 20 more states, bringing us to the back half of election day in the US.

Here are three states we’ll be closely following from this next batch:

• Texas - the state hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate in over 30 years, but former school teacher James Talarico is trying to change that. He is locked in close race with Trump-endorsed Republican Ken Paxton
• Michigan - a close Senate battle between Democrat Abdul El-Sayed and Republican Mike Rogers has captured national attention, with El-Sayed’s Democratic primary opponent endorsing Rogers at the last minute Sunday
• Maine - incumbent Susan Collins, a Republican who voted to impeach Trump, is fighting to hold her seat in the Democrat-leaning state, but is facing down a close challenge from her opponent Troy Jackson

As polls have begun to close, the BBC's US partner CBS News is rating some of the key Senate races that will decide control of Congress.

• Georgia: likely Democrat
• South Carolina: Toss up
• Ohio: Toss up

Shaimaa Khalil
North America correspondent in Anchorage, Alaska

There’s a steady stream of voters heading into a polling station in Anchorage, Alaska.

Alaska’s Senate race is tight, with Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan facing Democrat Mary Peltola.

But a second Dan Sullivan on the ballot has brought controversy to an already close contest. Among voters here, there are sharply different views about how much it matters.

Some tell me it has been "blown out of proportion" - political theatre attracting more interest outside Alaska than within it.

"They all want to know what the drama is about," Willy Mathias tells me.

"But it didn't affect how I voted, one way or the other," she says.

Asked whether it's clear on the ballot which Dan Sullivan was which, she replies: "It says 'Republican' and the other one doesn't have that. All you need to do is look."

But Navy veteran Jim Picard sees it differently: "I think the fake Dan Sullivan is just a dirty trick that the Democrats, I assume, are playing.

"I don't think he's a sincere candidate," he says, adding: "I think we need to re-elect Dan Sullivan because of his incumbency and what he's done for Alaska."

The Democrats and Peltola have previously denied knowing anything about an alleged "scheme" that led to the two Dan Sullivans standing in the race.

Polls have just closed in North Carolina, Ohio and West Virginia.

As a reminder, Ohio is on our list of US Senate races to watch closely in these midterm elections.

Tom Bateman
Reporting from Columbus, Ohio

Voting is coming to an end here in the crucial battleground state of Ohio. The polls officially close at 19:30 ET (00:30 GMT), but that doesn’t mean it's all finished.

Anyone who was in line before then is entitled to vote and should make sure they keep their place in the queue, according to Vote.org.

All the signs are of a strong turnout. I spoke to people today who said they'd had their longest ever wait to vote.

I'm now at the main Republican watch party here in the city of Columbus.

We're waiting for Jon Husted, fighting to keep his seat in the US Senate, and Vivek Ramaswamy, the Republican candidate for state governor.

I'll keep a close eye for signs of the mood as the count starts.

Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from Washington DC

Polls have only just started closing in some states, but we've already seen our first projection for the night - with CBS News projecting the Senate race in Virginia for Democrat Mark Warner.

Though that was an expected outcome, polls are about to close in two states that we’re watching closely: North Carolina and Ohio.

Here’s a quick overview of why they’re so important.

• Ohio is a swing state. It voted for Trump in the 2024 election, but now Republican candidates are facing close challenges. Republican Senator Jon Husted and Democrat Sherrod Brown have been locked in a tight Senate race. It could be decisive in determining which party has a Senate majority
• North Carolina has multiple toss-up districts. These could help decide which party wins control of the House of Representatives. There is also a closely followed Senate race here that could be the Democrats' first chance to flip a seat

Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondent in Washington DC

Now that we've had to a bit of time to chew over the first wave of information from the midterms voter poll, one thing jumps out.

This nationwide survey of actual voters has done a pretty good job so far of tracking what we have seen in the big public polls over the past few months.

The mood of the electorate is sour, particularly on the economy - and it's the issue that is at the top of voter minds.

Concerns about political corruption are also rank high. Donald Trump's job-performance rating - at 38% approval and 61% negative - is decidedly underwater.

If Democrats were afraid that recent polling suggesting they are poised for a good night was substantially off the mark, these findings might give them a bit of comfort - for now.

Follow the twists and turns of Trump's second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher's US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.