Follow our special coverage of the battle for control of the US Congress, hosted by Katty Kay and Christian Fraser:

Watch the programme here or click on the image at top of the page.

The first seven seats in the House of Representatives have been declared by AP.

Image source, .

The first race has been called. Incumbent Republican Hal Rogers has won his re-election bid.

Image source, Reuters

A rainbow made a beautiful Washington DC sunset even more remarkable as voting continued across the country.

An auspicious sign for #ElectionNight?

Image source, Getty Images

Votes haven't been counted yet, but Fox News' Greg Gutfeld has already shrugged off any potential Democratic victories.

The commentator said that even if Democrats earn 30 seats, that wouldn't actually be a gain since Republicans took 60 seats in the 2010 mid-terms.

"After spending two years preparing for this day, if you only get 30 seats, that’s like getting dumped after losing 30 pounds," he said during a Tuesday night election special.

He said any victory should be seen as a "temporary reprieve" or a "rest stop" on the way to 2020 when Trump is up for re-election.

The BBC's Hannah Long-Higgins took a deep dive into Florida's governor's race and what it revealed about passion and politics.

Image source, Reuters

White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told White House reporters that the President and First Lady are looking forward to watching the mid-term results come in alongside family and friends.

She also pointed out that President Trump has held "an unprecedented 50 rallies" with 30 in the last two months alone.

"The President has energised a staggering number of Americans at packed arenas and in overflow crowds at rallies across the country.

"He has made the choice clear to the American people: Tonight, we can continue down the path of American prosperity and security or we can go backwards."

Image source, Getty Images

Voters in North Dakota and Michigan are voting on whether to legalise the recreational use of cannabis, while Utah and Missouri are voting on medical marijuana.

Ohio is choosing whether to reduce the penalty for possessing the drug from a felony to a misdemeanour.

If Michigan and North Dakota legalise it, they'll be the first states in the region known as the Midwest to do so.

Donald Trump may not be on any ballots, but this year's mid-terms are undeniably about him.

As part of the BBC's Ask America project, we asked people from a dozen US states how they think the 45th president has changed things for them since he took office.

The BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan is down in Florida, speaking with voters and campaigners.

But in Florida, there's always another crazy antic making the news - even on election night.

Image source, Getty Images

Pollsters are predicting that turnout in Tuesday’s election will be considerably higher than the last mid-term elections in 2014.

The University of Florida-based US Elections Project puts the figure at 44.8%., external

More than 34 million people are already said to have voted early, up nearly seven million on last time.

In Texas, early voting exceeded the entire turnout in 2014.

Amid concerns that the mid-term elections could be hacked (and they're amazingly easy to hack, as the BBC's Dave Lee found out), the Department of Homeland Security has said they have not detected any "malicious activity" with voting glitches thus far.

There have been voting machine issues across the country, including in Georgia and Texas, where two of the most highly anticipated races of this year's elections are playing out.

Evangelical women helped Trump get elected but now some of them are turning against him and his candidates, as our White House correspondent Tara McKelvey found when she went to Virginia last month.

Rebecca Olsen, 21, a Southern Baptist who dresses conservatively in classic-red lipstick and black, ballet-style flats, was "gung-ho" for Trump in 2016.

She had concerns about the way he treated women, she says, but she brushed them aside.

"At the time I let a lot of things slip," she says. "And upon the past two years of reflection, I regret being so much in favour of him."

Read more about the evangelical women voting to dump Trump.

Democrats have been cautiously optimistic of their chances to take back some legislative power.

Such an outcome would have immediate and drastic implications for the president's ability to advance his political agenda and Democratic oversight of his administration.

The "mid-term wave" - a sweeping electoral triumph that reshapes the national political map - is a recurring phenomenon in US politics. Is one about to crash on Republicans in Washington?

Read the full analysis by the BBC's Anthony Zurcher here.

Twitter users are sharing their sentiments as they head to the polls with the meme: "Me voting in 2016 vs me voting in 2018".

As exit polls show, 65% of voters had Trump on their mind as they cast their vote this year.

Image source, Reuters

If there's one race that sums up the 2018 mid-terms, it is the close race for governor in Georgia - where one of the candidates is in charge of the election.

Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams would become the first female African-American governor in the US if she won.

Her Republican opponent Brian Kemp, as Georgia's secretary of state, is the top electoral official. He has been accused of voter suppression, one of the hot-button issues this year.

In his turn, on Sunday Mr Kemp accused the Democrats of hacking voter registration files. They describe the accusation as a desperate move.

The BBC's Courtney Subramanian spent time in Georgia looking at how the bitter race has played out.

Queen Bey has come out on Instagram to show her support for Beto O'Rourke, who is facing off in a tight race for Texas Senator against Ted Cruz.

"We can’t voice our frustrations and complain about what’s wrong without voting and exercising our power to make it right," she wrote.

We'll be carrying the results as they come in, updating the tracker as precincts report in.

You can follow along here:

US mid-term election results 2018

The BBC's Nada Tawfik reports that voter turnout has been high in New Jersey, despite fears that weather would impact voters.

And in sunny Florida, the BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan says it looks like Republicans certainly have come out to the polls.