Election Power Fight Puts Voters at the Bottom

A programming update left voting machines unable to scan paper ballots in 44 of Westchester County, New York’s 45 municipalities on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. Officials said voters could use emergency ballot procedures and that the ballots would remain secure and be counted. For people trying to cast a vote, election administration suddenly became another obstacle to navigate.

More than 57 million people had cast ballots by Monday, according to one report; another counted more than 50 million. Tens of thousands of volunteers trained by Democrats and nonpartisan watchdog groups monitored polling places, while the Justice Department said it would deploy roughly 1,000 election monitors across all 50 states. Harmeet Dhillon, head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said monitors would seek to ensure citizens were voting and votes weren’t canceled out by someone who “shouldn't be voting.”

Who Controls the Rules

The election will determine control of Congress for the final two years of President Donald Trump's term, with all 435 House seats and 35 Senate seats at stake. Governors’ races were also on ballots in 36 states, home to about 80% of the U.S. population. Polls were expected to close between 6 p.m. ET and 1 a.m. ET, with Alaska last; close contests could take days or weeks to count.

Republicans began the current Congress with a 220-215 House margin and a 53-47 Senate advantage. Democrats needed a net gain of three House seats and four Senate seats to win majorities, according to Associated Press reporting carried by PBS NewsHour. One or two seats could tip the balance in either chamber. Voters faced competing parties, but the chamber’s narrow arithmetic gives each party’s leadership control over what legislation advances.

The Trump administration sought to expand federal involvement in elections and pursued legal actions concerning alleged noncitizen voting and certification of Alaska's Senate results. Courts blocked several efforts. The Supreme Court rejected a request to make California set aside thousands of ballots identified by the federal government as potentially belonging to noncitizens, and a federal judge ordered the administration to stop sending voter lists of alleged noncitizens to election officials. Research and state investigations had found noncitizen voting to be extremely rare.

Trump hadn't committed to accepting the results without qualification. Asked a week before Election Day whether he would accept them, he said, “I will if they are honest.”

The Cost of Access—and Campaign Power

Heavy rain and flash flooding affected parts of Colorado, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. The Navajo Nation changed several polling locations, and voters in rural San Juan County, Utah, could vote electronically if they couldn’t reach polling places. Officials advised people returning late absentee ballots to use drop boxes or deliver them in person because of concerns about postal-service postmark delays. Late-arriving ballots or late postmarks disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters in California, Oregon and Washington during the year's primaries.

The congressional map also reflected decisions made far from individual voters. Republican-led redistricting efforts suggested a net gain of nine House seats for Republicans, according to The Associated Press. Trump pushed Texas to redraw its boundaries, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom persuaded California voters to respond; other Democratic and Republican states followed. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of the Voting Rights Act, allowing several Southern states to redraw districts that had been majority or near-majority Black.

Money set the scale of the contest. The 2026 elections were expected to be the most expensive in history, with Republican committees raising and spending more than their Democratic counterparts, aided in part by money from Trump-affiliated groups and Elon Musk. Democratic candidates outraised their Republican opponents. Campaigns and outside groups spent more than $800 million on affordability-focused advertising, including about $401 million from Democratic-aligned groups and $311 million from Republican-aligned groups, based on POLITICO’s analysis of AdImpact television-ad data.

Prices, Promises, and the Next Fight

Cost of living and affordability ranked among the issues most important to 47% of Americans surveyed by POLITICO and PF Global. The economy and jobs ranked second. Nearly two-thirds of Republican voters wanted to hear more from their party about the economy and cost of living; 64% wanted more discussion of those issues, compared with 42% who wanted more on immigration and border security. Campaign ad spending turned household pressure into another contest for political messaging.

Republican strategist Jeff Burton said, “Well, I don't think it's good for Republicans,” adding that the party’s message hadn’t sufficiently addressed affordability. Arizona Republican strategist Chuck Coughlin said Trump was “pretty much said time and time again, he doesn't care” and called his focus “phenomenal how off message he is.” White House spokesperson Matthew Middleton said Trump had provided “more than $82 billion in individual tax relief.” Republican National Committee spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre said, “Democrats' far-left policies will decimate” Republican progress and said Trump “has criss crossed the nation” to drive voters to the polls.

The results could alter who controls investigations, legislation and the administration’s agenda, but they won't remove the powers attached to those institutions. A Democratic majority could bring committee control, staff, larger budgets and subpoena powers, and Democrats could investigate the administration, Trump's business dealings and companies that worked with the White House. If Republicans retained both chambers, Trump’s agenda could continue with little congressional resistance. Trump described the veto as “strong” and said, “you end up working out deals.”