US Midterms

US Midterms: Polls Close As Americans Brace For Results From Consequential Elections

Published

2 years ago

Nov 9, 2022.

Americans are bracing for results from consequential elections as polls begin to close across the country.

Eko Hot Blog reports that polls have begun to close as Americans decided consequential races from Tuesday to Wednesday.

EDITOR’S PICKS

Polls closed in Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia at 7pm ET (1 am Nigerian time).

The final polls won’t close until 1 a.m. ET (7am Nigerian time) in Alaska.

The midterm elections will determine the parties that control Congress (House and Senate) and critical offices around the US.

Republicans are favoured to take control of the House and challenge Democrats for control of the Senate. Early exit poll data showed voters have a pessimistic view of the economy, with three in four calling it “bad”, according to CBS News.

Nearly eight in 10 say inflation has been a hardship for them, including about 20% who say that hardship has been severe. Most say they have been negatively impacted by gas prices, and nearly half of voters say their financial situation is worse than it was two years ago, more than twice the number who say it’s better.

Democrats, meanwhile, were pinning their hopes on strong turnout among their core constituencies, including young voters, who they hope will be enough to stem the tide of GOP gains and retain control of Congress.

Republicans need only a net gain of five seats to take control of the House of Representatives. In the Senate, they need a net gain of one seat.

According to the preliminary national results of the exit poll conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research, more voters trust Republicans than Democrats to handle inflation and crime.

Roughly half of voters said they trusted GOP candidates on those two issues, while more than 4 in 10 voters said they trusted Democratic candidates.

When it comes to the issue of abortion, however, roughly half of voters said they trusted Democratic candidates, compared with more than 4 in 10 voters who said they trusted Republican candidates.

Roughly 8 in 10 of voters in this year’s midterms said they were at least somewhat confident that elections in their state are being conducted fairly and accurately, according to Edison Research.

About half said they were very confident. Only about 2 in 10 said they were not very or not at all confident.

But voters were also deeply concerned about the state of the country’s democracy. Slightly fewer than 3 in 10 said that they viewed democracy in the US today as at least somewhat secure, with about 7 in 10 feeling that democracy is somewhat or very threatened.