We May Not Know Who Controls the US House and Senate for a Few Days—or Even Weeks

Two days out from the midterm elections, Americans are waiting to see which party will control the US House and Senate.

The race to control the Senate has come down to Arizona and Nevada, where final mail ballots are still being counted, and Georgia, where a runoff election in December will decide who represents the state in the Senate. According to Reuters, security officials in these states are on high alert for election-related protests and baseless conspiracies promoting voter fraud.

Hundreds of thousands of votes are still waiting to be counted in Arizona and Nevada, and election officials in Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous county, say that counting could take until at least Friday. There are about 400,000 left to be counted here, officials say. 

In Nevada, tens of thousands of mail votes remain to be counted in Washoe and Clark counties, which together make up about 90% of the vote in the state. 

If Democrats win in both of these contests, they’ll retain control of the Senate. If they win one of the two seats, the Georgia runoff election will determine which party controls the Senate. 

Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Hershel Walker will face off on Dec. 6, after neither candidate cleared the 50% threshold needed to win outright under Georgia law.

Control of the US House of Representatives will also come down to a number of states out west: California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, and again, Arizona and Nevada. 

In California, Democrats are targeting several Republican House incumbents in seats that should be highly competitive given their Democratic leanings and significant percentage of Latino voters. They include GOP incumbents David G. Valadao in CA-22, Mike Garcia in CA-27, Michelle Steel in CA-45, and Ken Calvert in CA-41. 

In Colorado, Americans are waiting on results of the race between Republican Lauren Boebert and Democrat Adam Frisch in the 3rd US House district.

Two congressional contests have yet to be called in Oregon: the race between Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer and Democrat Jamie McLeod-Skinner in the 5th district and the race between Republican Mike Erickson and Democrat Andrea Salinas in the 6th district. 

And in Washington, another two elections have yet to be called: the race between Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Republican Joe Kent in the 3rd congressional district and the race between Democrat Kim Schrier and Republican Matt Larkin in the 8th congressional district. 

Americans will have to wait on the outcomes of all these races to see which party will hold control of either chamber of Congress, something that could take a few days, or even weeks.