The news that the Democratic Party will retain control of the Senate has sparked recriminations among Republicans
Some senior Republicans have been on US morning shows blaming Donald Trump for the party's poor performance
They are long-time critics of the president like Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, who says Trump has cost them three elections
The party's leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, is also taking criticism for the unexpected defeats
The Democrats reached the magic number of 50 Senate seats thanks to Catherine Cortez Masto's victory in Nevada
US President Joe Biden said he was "incredibly pleased" at his party's victory in the upper chamber of Congress
But Republicans are inching closer to taking the House of Representatives, which would be a big setback for the president
Democrats have retained majority control of the US Senate, with Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto projected to win in Nevada by CBS News.
Image source, Getty ImagesWhen other states reported their results days ago, you might reasonably wonder why it's taking so long in Nevada.
Part of the reason is that Nevada sends every voter a postal ballot, and these take longer to process.
A mail-in ballot must be postmarked by election day, but the state allowed until 12 November for the envelopes to actually arrive.
A process known as "curing" also holds things up. This is where voters correct problems with their mail-in ballots, such as a missing signature.
The deadline for voters to “cure” their ballots is 14 November and thousands of ballots are still waiting to be updated.
Supporters of the postal system say it's important to prioritise convenience and accuracy over speed.
Nevada's Republican Senate candidate Adam Laxalt is openly saying how close this race is - and that there's no guarantee he'll win.
Earlier today he tweeted that he was up only 862 votes.
"Multiple days in a row, the mostly mail in ballots counted continue to break in higher DEM margins than we calculated.
"This has narrowed our victory window," he said.
He then failed to acknowledge his opponent, Catherine Cortez Masto, by name in a second tweet.
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Cortez Masto's campaign told CNN that the team remains "confident" as the counting continues.
Image source, Getty ImagesFormer President Donald Trump - who continues to insist, falsely, that he won the 2020 presidential election - has been making unsubstantiated claims about the midterms in Nevada and Arizona.
"The Democrats are finding all sorts of votes in Nevada and Arizona. What a disgrace that this can be allowed to happen!" he posted on his Truth Social platform on Friday.
"Now they’re finding all sorts of Ballots in Clark County, Nevada," he said, without providing any evidence.
"They are pulling out all stops to steal the Election from Adam Laxalt," he wrote in reference to the Nevada Republican candidate.
Addressing the claims at a press conference today, Clark County's registrar Joe Gloria responded: "There is no way to find ballots." He added that he has not heard from either the Laxalt or Cortez Masto campaigns about potential issues of fraud, and has been in touch with both teams to answer questions and explain the counting process.
In Maricopa County, Arizona, Trump claimed voting machines "in large numbers didn’t work, but only in Republican districts". He again provided no evidence of this.
At least 125 Republicans elected this week have publicly denied the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election, according to BBC analysis.
Image source, Getty ImagesRepublican Adam Laxalt is a lawyer who served as the state's attorney general from 2015 to 2019.
Launching his campaign, Laxalt said: “The radical left, rich elites, woke corporations, academia and the media - they’re taking over America."
Laxalt - a supporter of former President Donald Trump - has claimed without evidence that large-scale voter fraud occurred in Nevada during the 2020 election.
Image source, Getty ImagesDemocrat Catherine Cortez Masto has served as Nevada's senator since 2017.
She has been outspoken in support of legalised abortion and gun control.
Her website says she has been working to repair a "broken immigration system and protect hardworking families".
She voted to convict Trump of incitement of insurrection in the wake of the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
Arizona kept us waiting too, but we finally got a winner projected in the Senate race there yesterday - Democrat Mark Kelly, who had faced Trump-backed Republican challenger Blake Masters.
Image source, reutersDemocratic Senate candidate Mark Kelly is projected to have won his re-election campaign against Republican Blake Masters
Now attention is focused on the Arizona governor's race, where former TV news anchor Kari Lake, a Republican, is locked in a tight battle with Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs.
While on the campaign trail, Lake was challenged by the BBC's Katty Kay over her remarks that Donald Trump should not have to run for president in two years' time because the 2020 election was stolen from him.
BBC's Katty Kay challenges Kari Lake on election claims
In Clark County, Nevada’s largest, registrar Joe Gloria said all the ballots received there would be counted by Saturday evening local time.
He estimated that his staff will report final numbers between 1930 EST and 2130 EST (0030 GMT and 0230 GMT).
Senator Catherine Cortez Masto was considered one of the Democratic Party’s most vulnerable incumbents going into the midterms, but she might well hang onto her seat if this latest tally favours her.
A senior Democrat official has told CBS News they anticipate that if Cortez Masto can secure most of the 22,000 votes expected to be reported from Clark County, and sees her lead grow as vote tallies come from other Nevada counties this evening, she should take the lead over Republican Adam Laxalt.
So the political stakes couldn’t be much higher. For the Republicans especially, it’s win or bust.
We don’t have a result yet because of how incredibly tight this race is - there’s only about 860 votes between the two candidates, out of almost a million cast. And the gap has been shrinking.
About 94% of the expected votes are already in, and we’re expecting another big dump of 22,000 votes from Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, in the next hour or so. If a high proportion goes to either candidate, that could give one a significant lead.
You can see a full breakdown - and get live updates - on our results page.
Let’s quickly recap how things stand nationwide at the moment.
Remember, these midterm elections determine who controls the two chambers of the US Congress (President Joe Biden wasn’t on the ballot).
The House of Representatives: The Republicans have 213 seats, and the Democrats have 206, according to projections by the BBC’s US partner, CBS News. The Republicans are inching closer to the 218 seats required for a majority, but counting is still ongoing in the 16 remaining races.
The Senate: In the 100-seat upper chamber, the two parties are tied on 49 seats each. We don’t have a result yet for the two remaining races. Georgia is holding a run-off election on 6 December. And in Nevada, they are still counting votes with the outcome too close to call. If the Democrats win even one more seat, they will retain control of the Senate as Vice-President Kamala Harris can cast a tie-breaking vote.
Welcome back to our live coverage of the US midterm elections. We know what you’re thinking: didn’t America go to the polls ages ago? Well yes, election day was Tuesday. And yes, we already know who won most of the races.
But we still don’t have the answer to the biggest question of all: which political party will end up with control of the US Congress. The battle between the Republicans and Democrats is so close that neither party has yet won a majority in the Senate or the House of Representatives.
There’s a chance that could change within the next few hours, or perhaps even sooner. And all eyes are on Nevada.