Image source, Reuters

It's now just past 10:30 in Washington DC (15:30 GMT) - and there's still a long way to go in these midterm elections.

Republicans are still favoured to win the House of Representatives with a small margin.

But all eyes remain on the four Senate races that will determine if Democrats will retain control of the upper chamber of Congress, or if Republicans can tip it in their favour.

In Arizona, Democrat Mark Kelly is inching ahead of his Republican opponent, Donald Trump-endorsed Blake Masters, though only 68% of the votes have been counted so far.

In Nevada, Republican Adam Laxalt has a slight lead over Democrat incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto, who became the country's first Latina senator in 2016.

In Wisconsin, where 95% of the votes have been counted, Republican incumbent Ron Johnson is less than 30,000 votes ahead of his Democrat opponent Mandela Barnes.

And the biggest unknown of the US midterm elections remains the Georgia Senate race, where Republican Herschel Walker and Democrat Raphael Warnock are tied with 49% of the vote.

It is likely that Georgia will head into another election in December should either candidate fail to secure more than 50% of the vote.

Republican candidate Dr Mehmet Oz has called his opponent and the projected winner of the Senate race in Pennsylvania, John Fetterman, to concede, according to Fetterman's communications director.

Oz, the Trump-backed celebrity surgeon, had said he was confident he would win on Tuesday night.

Fetterman's victory in the Senate saw Pennsylvania flip from Republican to Democrat - a major victory for the Democrats.

Jessica Sherwood
BBC News

Image source, Getty Images

Projected results continue to roll in, and whilst all victories are special, some make history. Here are some of the candidates changing the record books in the 2022 midterms.

• Democrat Maxwell Frost, 25, is projected to win in Florida's 10th Congressional District. Born in 1997, he is the first member of Generation Z elected to serve in the US Congress.
• Republican candidate Katie Britt, 40, will be elected as Alabama's first woman to serve in the US Senate, according to projections from the BBC'S US partner CBS News.
• Democrat Wes Moore, 44, has also made history as Maryland's first black governor. He is only the third black governor elected in the nation's 246-year history, alongside Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and Douglas Wilder of Virginia.
• Democrat Maura Healey, 51, the projected winner of Massachusetts's governor race, is the first lesbian to be elected governor.

• Democrat James Roesener, 26, is projected to become the first openly transgender man to be to elected to any state legislature in US history.

Read more on the candidates making history here.

Image source, Getty Images

The man who has helped Democrats stay in the hunt to keep their razor-thin control over the Senate is John Fetterman of Pennsylvania.

The 53-year-old tattooed, hoodie-wearing, 6ft 8in (2m) tall unconventional candidate suffered a near-fatal stroke just five months ago that kept him out of the public eye for several weeks.

It also resulted in a rather disappointing performance in a televised debate against his Republican rival Mehmet Oz, a Trump-supported candidate and celebrity TV host. In several instances, Fetterman was unable to engage in the kind of quick, nimble replies and verbal sparring that typifies American political debates.

But last night he gave the Democrats a huge victory by flipping a Senate seat in a state that has turned out to be a major battleground in the past several elections.

He took the stage just about six hours after the polls closed to declare his victory, and repeated what he has said over the last two weeks in response to questions about his debate performance.

"This campaign has always been about fighting for everyone who’s ever been gotten knocked down and ever gotten back up," he said.

The hard fought race saw three of the five living US Presidents - Biden, Trump and Obama - descend on Pennsylvania in the last week of campaigning and was declared a state either party could win in many of the polls.

With Democrats facing tough races in other battleground states, winning Pennsylvania bolsters the party’s hopes to hold on to their narrow 50-50 majority for another two years.

Chelsea Bailey
Reporting from Washington

Voters moved to protect abortion access in several states, by amending their state constitutions – bringing the patchwork of US states where physicians can legally provide the procedure into sharper relief.

Despite concerns over inflation and the future of American democracy, abortion was still a significant factor in the midterm election, with more than 25% of voters calling it their most important issue, according to exit polls.

• In Michigan, voters amended the state's constitution to establish "an individual right to reproductive freedom, including right to make and carry out all decisions about pregnancy"
• In California, the state's supreme court had already ruled abortion access was a protected matter of "privacy", but voters went a step further by adding the right to abortion and contraceptive to the state's constitution
• In Vermont, where abortion access was already legal, voters also amended their state governing document to "ensure every Vermonter is afforded personal reproductive liberty"
• And in Kentucky, voters chose to reject a measure that would have removed abortion access protections from the state's constitution, AP is reporting

An abortion measure was also on the ballot in Montana where votes are still being counted. The success of these ballot measures paint a more nuanced picture of the American abortion debate than initially suggested.

But the battle over abortion access is far from over. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham has promised to introduce legislation that would ban the procedure nationally, should his party retake control of the US Senate.

Laura Trevelyan
BBC World News America presenter in Washington

Republican pollster and strategist Patrick Ruffini has said he couldn’t have imagined a worse night for former President Donald Trump, whom he described as a wounded animal.

By contrast, he tells the BBC's continuing election coverage that Republican Governor Ron DeSantis had an excellent night in Florida, where he increased his share of the vote and his coat-tails pulled other Republicans up the ballot to victory in their own races.

Asked what happened to the predicted Republican red wave, Ruffini says the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v Wade - the court's 1973 ruling that abortion was a constitutional right and therefore legal across the US - drove up Democratic turnout.

Holly Honderich
Reporting from Kentucky

Voters in Kentucky have said "no" to a constitutional amendment that would have explicitly removed abortion rights from the constitution, the Associated Press news agency is reporting.

Overnight during a pro-choice election event in Louisville, Kentucky, party-goers celebrated and breathed audible sighs of relief as the returns rolled in.

“Kentucky voters made it clear: We won't back down when politicians try to come for our right to control our own bodies and our futures,” said Tamarra Wieder, Kentucky state director for Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates.

This is a major victory for pro-choice activists in a solidly conservative state and follows a series of wins in other state referendums on the issue. Earlier on Tuesday, Vermont, Michigan and California all enshrined the right to abortion in their constitution.

Abortion rights have been a top issue in these midterm elections after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade earlier this year, paving the way for states to restrict access to the procedure.

Misleading election claims fact-checkedpublished at 13:49 Greenwich Mean Time 9 November 2022

13:49 GMT 9 November 2022

Mike Wendling, Shayan Sardarizadeh, Jake Horton
BBC Reality Check

We have seen several false and unsubstantiated rumours circulating online, with suggestions that the vote in certain states has been being rigged.

So, we've looked at some of the most widely shared claims.

Arizona

About a fifth of voting machines in Maricopa County, which includes the state's largest city, Phoenix, malfunctioned early on Tuesday due to a printer error. It led to voting slowing down, but election officials say every vote will be counted as they worked through the night to fix the problem. It has led to Donald Trump to saying: "They are trying to steal the election with bad machines and delay. Don't let it happen." Quite a while still to go until these votes get counted as the election department tweeted below.

Wisconsin

One tweet, shared more than 11,000 times, claimed the ballots were being rigged as the clip appeared to show a poll worker marking ballots. But, officials in Dane County, Wisconsin, where the video was taken, say the worker was doing his job normally. Before passing the ballot on, election workers circle the correct local election ward printed on the ballot and initial it.

Georgia

In another widely circulated tweet, one woman claimed she was "kicked out" along with her son as poll workers trying to "ensure a free and fair election" in Fulton County, Georgia. But officials said Laura Kronen was sacked because she was at the US Capitol in Washington during the riot on 6 January 2021, external.

• You can read more about misleading election claims here

The battle for control of the US Senate comes down to four incredibly close races in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin.

Take a look at where the races stand in each state.

Image source, BBC News

Image source, BBC News

Image source, BBC News

Image source, BBC News

Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from Washington

Image source, Getty Images

While the results of Tuesday's midterm election are still becoming clear as the US wakes up, one big winner has emerged: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

DeSantis, 44, won his re-election bid in a nearly 20-percentage-point landslide against Democratic challenger Charlie Crist in a victory he described as a "win for the ages".

In his initial campaign to become governor in 2018, by comparison, he won by less than a single percentage point.

Some have speculated that the win by a candidate some have referred to as "Trump 2.0" will set him on a collision course with Donald Trump to secure the Republican nomination for the presidency in 2024.

Notably, the crowd at DeSantis's victory party in Tampa chanted "two more years" at the smiling candidate - perhaps a sign of his rapidly increasing electoral viability.

Among those who now see DeSantis as a stronger White House contender than Trump was Mike Cernovich, a right-wing commentator who was once described by Politico as an "indefatigable Trump cheerleader".

"Trump has zero shot at 2024 in general. After tonight, this isn't up for debate," Cernovich tweeted on Tuesday night. "DeSantis in 2024 or accept total defeat."

Read more about Ron DeSantis and his potential presidential ambitions here.

Esme Stallard
Climate change reporter, reporting from Sharm el-Sheikh

On Friday, the dust will have hopefully settled on the elections and we’ll know the outcome. But Biden won’t be at home reflecting on the result, he will be here at the UN climate summit, COP27, in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Ramón Cruz, president of environmental organisation Sierra Club, said at a briefing earlier today he believed “the climate message did play a role in this election”, and helped secure victories for many Democrats.

Frances Colón, senior director for international climate policy at the Center for American Progress, agrees: she says the election is important because it will deliver climate action at the local level.

Even if the Republicans take the House, it won’t undo some of the domestic climate policy already introduced, she adds.

“The Republicans... cannot reverse the climate law, our tax credits for clean energy are safe. What you might see is [that] they might try to slow things down.”

But there are concerns among delegates from developing nations about the outcome.

Last year at COP26, President Biden promised more than $11bn (£9.6bn) of funding for developing countries to help prepare for climate change. He went back to the US and only secured $1bn.

Colón said: “If the Republicans win, the $11bn are not secure. It is very important that the Democrats in Congress do what they need to do right now in the coming months. They still have until December to put the money they pledged on the table.”

Chelsea Bailey
Reporting from Washington

The battle between Democrats and Republicans for control of the US Senate will come down to several nail-biting races that could swing in either party's direction.

Right now as results stand, the Democrats have 48 seats, and the Republicans 47. Democrats need to get to 50 to maintain control of the chamber, while the Republicans need 51 - that's because when it's 50-50, Vice-President Kamala Harris provides the tie-breaking vote for the Democrats.

Races are still too close to call in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin. Alaska hasn't been called yet but the front-runners are both Republicans taking each other on.

Although nothing is set in stone, here's where things stand at the moment:

• The Arizona race is leaning towards incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Kelly with 93% of precincts in
• In Nevada, Republican Adam Laxalt is leading ahead of Democrat incumbent Catherine Cortez Masto, but many votes are yet to be counted

• Wisconsin is too close to call but Republican Ron Johnson is narrowly leading Democratic challenger Mandela Barnes

So, with races this close, all eyes will turn to Georgia once again. At the moment, neither candidate appears likely to meet the 50% threshold needed to win in the state, which means Senator Raphael Warnock and his Republican challenger Herschel Walker will likely head to a run-off election.

That election will take place in early December. And so if neither Republicans nor Democrats can get to a majority without it, Georgia will be on everyone's mind for the next four weeks. Nail-biting stuff.

Image source, BBC News

Mike Wendling
Reporting from Washington

At least 70 election deniers have won Congressional or state-wide seats so far.

That number is likely to rise significantly.

A BBC analysis found 179 candidates for top seats who have fully and publicly denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election.

Many of them are heavily favoured in their districts or states even if their races haven’t yet been officially called by our partners at CBS.

House of Representatives winners included Marjorie Taylor Greene in Georgia and Jim Jordan in Ohio.

But others - like JR Majewski in Ohio and Pennsylvania Governor candidate Doug Mastriano - were defeated in their respective races.

No matter the final number of election deniers who win their elections, there will be significant numbers of people in the new Congress and in top state-level positions who believe that Joe Biden was not legitimately elected president.

It's just past 07:30 in Washington DC (12:30 GMT). Which party - the Republicans or the Democrats - will control the US Congress for the next two years remains unclear, with a number of key races still to be called.

As predicted, the Republicans look to be in a good position to retake one of the two Houses of Congress, the House of Representatives.

The race for the Senate, however, is too close to call, with the parties still neck and neck.

So although the Republicans have made gains, the party hasn't suffered the losses in the Senate and governor battles which polls had suggested could happen.

In fact, in many of the key races, the early front-runners have held on:

• In Pennsylvania, Democrat John Fetterman outperformed polls to win the Senate race against Oz Mehmet, the Republican candidate and former Oprah Winfrey Show celebrity doctor
• The Georgia race is still a nail-biter between Democrat senator Raphael Warnock and his Trump-backed challenger Herschel Walker. Officials say there will most likely be another vote in four weeks to decide the contest
• But Republican Brian Kemp prevailed to retain the state governorship over high-profile challenger Stacey Abrams

• The Senate race in Nevada remains too close to call. Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto - the first Latina to serve as senator - is trailing her Republican rival Adam Laxalt. Election officials say they have been flooded by thousands of mail-in ballots which will take several days to count

• Meanwhile, the Republicans look close to obtaining the five-seat gain they need to swing the House
• The states of Michigan, Vermont and California all voted to enshrine the right to abortion into their constitution. The results of an anti-abortion vote in Kentucky are also awaited

Image source, .

If you are just waking up in the US, control of Congress is still very much up for grabs. A few key races are too close to call and the counting may go on for several more days.

One of the key races for the control of Senate is in Nevada, where early Wednesday morning, Democrat Senator Catherine Cortez Masto was trailing her Republican opponent, Adam Laxalt by a narrow margin.

State election officials predict the final result may take several days as they are flooded by thousands of mail-in ballots and it will take time to count those.

As per state election laws, they can be counted if they arrive as late as Saturday, if they have been postmarked by election day.

An election officials in Washoe County told the New York Times that she was expecting roughly 16,000 mail-in ballots to arrive on Election Day, and those votes would not be counted until Thursday because poll workers were so behind.

As competitive as the race maybe, this hasn’t stopped both candidates from projecting confidence in their victory.

Image source, Getty Images

Marianna Spring
Disinformation and social media correspondent

I've been tracking the Undercover Voters' social media over the past 24 hours. They are five profiles I've created to see what US voters can be recommended and exposed to online ahead of the midterm elections.

It has taken very little to set alight narratives about rigged elections - which have continued and evolved since the 2020 election - and uncertainty and delays in states like Arizona make them more likely to catch fire.

Populist Right Britney - who follows pages on social media opposing billionaires and abortion and lots in support of former President Donald Trump - has been shown posts about broken voting machines to fuel existing narratives online about rigged elections. That's been different on the left-leaning voters' feeds.

The increase in hate and disinformation I've seen through some of the Undercover Voters' social media feeds is part of a wider pattern. The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) says election conspiracy claims and abusive language aimed at politicians online have intensified in the run-up to the midterms.

Plus, it's personalities rather than parties who dominate the Undercover Voters’ social media feeds - and Republicans seem to have cut through to our apolitical accounts.

Stressed Sideliner Gabriela - who liked lots of groups and pages about her local community in Miami and hobbies, not politics - has been increasingly recommended right-leaning content on social media, often about inflation.

Politicians like Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who won tonight, have started to dominate her feed. For the right-leaning voters, their posts are all about him tonight - but there's still a lot of space for content about former President Donald Trump.

James Waterhouse
BBC Ukraine Correspondent, reporting from Kyiv

This morning, a correspondent on Ukraine’s ICTV news channel asked the question Ukrainians want the answer to most: “Will support for Ukraine still stand?”

“Intrigue remains,” commented the presenter.

When there are significant political moments in the West, such as the recent turmoil in Westminster, Kyiv tends to get nervous.

A shift in the balance of power in Washington directly affects the future amount of military aid Ukraine receives.

Pundit Viktor Andrusiv doesn’t believe a Republican victory would change anything. What he does see as more of a factor is a looming recession across the Atlantic.

On the diplomatic front, the US has been keen to reassure: “America’s support for Ukraine is ironclad!” declared the US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

On a recent visit, she also announced a $25m (£22m) humanitarian package to help vulnerable households survive the winter.

Ukraine will be hoping actions like these continue beyond Thursday.

Image source, .

Voter turnout in the US during this year's midterm elections was the second highest in more than 50 years, but lower than the last midterms in 2018.

Slightly less than 50% of eligible voters turned out on 8 November to chose which lawmakers would represent them in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Records compiled by the US Elections Project date back to 1902, but the population of eligible voters has changed significantly since then.

It was only on 4 June 1919 that Congress guaranteed American women's right to vote, while African Americans across the US were guaranteed the right to vote from 1965 onwards.

Laura Trevelyan
BBC World News America presenter in Washington

Republicans are waking up this morning to a red ripple at best - with no sign of the red wave they’d hoped for.

Control of the House is still undecided, though Republicans have a decent chance of winning a narrow majority.

In the Senate, votes are still being counted in four big races in Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin and Nevada.

If Republicans can flip Nevada, having lost Pennsylvania, then control of the Senate could come down to a run-off in Georgia in December.

For former President Donald Trump, it has not been a good night.

His hand-picked candidates have mostly fared poorly, while the only Trumpist running strongly is Kari Lake in Arizona - and even she is currently behind.

For President Biden, his focus on abortion rights and the risks to American democracy of electing election deniers seems to have paid off.

Republicans were counting on high inflation and fears of crime to propel them to a historic victory. Instead, Democrats have defied the headwinds which usually see the party in the White House losing badly in the midterms.

Alys Davies
BBC News Live Reporter

Image source, Reuters

One of the states we're watching is Alaska, in the far north-west of the US, where results are still coming in.

Democrat candidate Mary Peltola is seeking re-election to the House of Representatives, and is up against former Republican Governor Sarah Palin.

Palin, a former vice-presidential candidate, lost by a few percentage points against Peltola in a special House election in August following the death of the state's long-serving Republican representative, Don Young, earlier in the year.

Trump-backed Palin is now seeking to win the seat back for the Republicans in a rematch against Peltola, which would put her into the House from 2023 onwards if she won.

There is also a tight race going on for the Senate seat between two Republican candidates.

Senator Lisa Murkowski, who voted to convict former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial, is seeking to be re-elected. She is running against the Trump-backed Republican candidate Kelly Tshibaka.

The Republican Governor of Alaska, Mike Dunleavy, is also seeking to be re-elected.