The first polling stations closed in Indiana and Kentucky during the 2026 US midterm elections, with early results from Florida and Virginia expected shortly. The economy was identified as the most important issue for voters in a poll, a concern that could weigh on President Donald Trump’s Republicans.
Voting was scheduled to end at 1:30 a.m. Central European Time in North Carolina and Ohio. North Carolina is among the states where Democrats have some of their strongest chances of unseating Republicans, while the race in traditionally Republican Ohio was described as open. Polls in many states were due to remain open until 2 a.m.; the last were set to close at 6 a.m. across most of Alaska and in Hawaii, and at 7 a.m. in the Aleutian Islands.
A polling-place disruption in Kansas temporarily prevented voters from casting ballots for about an hour and a half after ballot papers ran out. Supplies were later restored, and several dozen affected voters were able to return to vote by 7 p.m. local time.
The report also noted that 23 polling locations in Florida had been moved at short notice and that problems with vote-counting machines had been reported in New York state. NASA astronauts were also voting from the International Space Station, a practice the agency has supported since 1997 using encrypted transmission of ballots.
Sources: Süddeutsche Zeitung.