First signs of trends in US elections expected on Wednesday morning

Initial results of the US midterm elections are expected Tuesday night, but closely contested Senate and House races could delay final outcomes. Ranked-choice voting, legal challenges and concerns over President Trump's acceptance of results may further complicate the electoral process

New York: First poll results showing firm trends Tuesday’s US midterm elections are expected before midnight (10:30 am Wednesday in India). That will be for the constituencies where the results are not too close. In nine of the closely watched 11 Senate races, the results may be known by noon Wednesday (10:30 pm in India), but they may not be enough to declare which party will have the majority.

Two states, Alaska and Maine, have ranked choice, under which if a candidate does not get 50 per cent of the votes in the first count, new calculations are made to take into account the second choices marked by voters and this can take more time.

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Legal challenges, which the Republicans have threatened, can lead to long delays in determining some of the races, especially the one in Alaska.

In the last two elections, in 2022 and 2024, it took eight days for control of the House of Representatives to be finally declared after the elections because in some key constituencies the counts were too close, and four days for the Senate in 2022. In the case of a California House constituency where the margin was 187 votes, it took 29 days for the result to be known in 2024.

But overshadowing all this, especially in the case of the Senate, is whether President Trump will accept the results. He still hasn’t admitted that he lost the 2020 presidential election, which he continues to claim was “stolen”.

His Justice Department, which tried unsuccessfully to pre-emptively challenge the Alaska Senate election, is reported to be preparing the ground for others.

In California, the Justice Department asked a court to order the state to separate about 20,000 early ballots that it claimed were from noncitizens. It lost the case, and also the appeals to a higher court and ultimately the Supreme Court.