Republican Gov. Mike DeWine will win reelection in Ohio, CNN projects, and defeat Democrat Nan Whaley.
2022 midterm election results
By Aditi Sangal, Adrienne Vogt, Elise Hammond, Maureen Chowdhury, Clare Foran, Meg Wagner, Melissa Macaya, Joe Ruiz and Seán Federico-OMurchú, CNN
CNN Projection: Republican Gov. Mike DeWine will win reelection in Ohio
From CNN staff
It’s 7:30 p.m. ET. Polls are now closing in these 3 states
From CNN’s Ethan Cohen and Melissa Holzberg DePalo
It’s 7:30 p.m. ET, and polls are closing in the following states:
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- West Virginia
See an hour-by-hour guide to Election Night poll closings here.
Arizona Republicans ask court to extend time at Maricopa County polling locations
From CNN's Jessica Schneider
Republicans are asking a judge in Maricopa County to keep the polls open until 10 p.m. local time and to suspend the public release of any early ballot returns until 11 p.m. local time.
The lawsuit against Maricopa County officials alleges that 36% of the county’s voting centers have seen excessive delays and long lines because of continuing malfunctions of ballot tabulation devices and printers.
Maricopa County has debunked the claims of excessive delays, CNN's Daniel Dale has reported.
Additionally, the lawsuit claims that voters in some polling places were instructed by poll workers to discard their ballots when the tabulation device could not read their ballot and to go to another polling place where they were not necessarily registered.
The lawsuit alleges that these voters were subsequently turned away at these polling places. CNN's Ella Nilsen reported earlier today that Maricopa County elections officials insisted that every vote would be counted, despite earlier tabulation issues that arose from a printer issue at about 60 vote centers.
“There was no one who came today with a valid ID who was turned away from the polls,” Maricopa County Board of Supervisors chairman Bill Gates told reporters Tuesday afternoon. “Even when we had this [issue] and we hadn’t figured out the solution, people were still able to vote. It was just a matter of maybe not voting in the way they wanted to.”
The lawsuit is asking the court to instruct all inspectors at polling locations to allow voters who may be recorded as previously voting, which could be in error because of earlier delays, to complete a provisional ballot for later potential processing.
Ohio Senate nominee J.D. Vance's campaign feeling excited as polls near close
From CNN's Melanie Zanona
The campaign team for J.D. Vance, the Republican candidate vying for the open Ohio Senate seat, is buzzing with excitement as the polls are on the verge of coming to a close.
A campaign source said they’re seeing low turnout in Cuyahoga County — a strongly Democratic county that includes Cleveland and went for Joe Biden in 2020.
“We like what we’re seeing,” the Vance campaign source said.
Vance — who is watching the results from the Ohio GOP watch party tonight — has been popping in and out of the war room that his team has set up here at the hotel as they crunch numbers.
As he arrived on site at the hotel, Vance was all smiles and told CNN when asked how he is feeling, “We’re good, we’re good."
His campaign said they’ll start to get a better sense about 30 minutes after the polls close, but in Ohio, it’s all about three key cities: Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus.
Meanwhile, Democratic nominee Tim Ryan's team said the Cuyahoga suburbs look good, and they believe there is a potential data lag in Cleveland proper, where precincts are less staffed.
"Things are going smoothly," spokesperson for Michigan secretary of state
From CNN's Andrew Millman and Annie Grayer
Michigan Department of State spokesperson Jake Rollow said “things are going smoothly” with elections in the state.
Asked about recent statements from former President Donald Trump calling for protests in Detroit, Rollow said “we have prepared for this long before the former president issued his statements.” (Trump called for protests after a mishap at the polls on Tuesday morning in Detroit, which election officials called a “harmless data error.”)
When asked about an Ann Arbor poll watcher who was repeatedly issuing impermissible challenges, Rollow explained that the poll watcher was challenging voters who had brought in their blank absentee ballots to surrender before voting in-person, which is the appropriate process. Rollow was unsure if the poll watcher was “removed or simply asked to stop and they stopped,” but those challenges were stopped.
“We haven’t gotten reports of many challenges at all,” Rollow told reporters. “If we had an appropriate challenges or numerous challenges taking place in the county boards, I believe the clerks would have communicated that to the bureau and we’re not hearing that.”
For months, GOP activists have clamored about sending a barrage of poll-watchers to challenge ballots in battleground states.
Separately, Detroit Election Administrator Daniel Baxton just announced to poll workers that the absentee counting board in Detroit has tabulated approximately 63,000 absentee ballots at this point.
Baxter said he is waiting for 2 more deliveries of absentee ballots to come in to this location later tonight.
Exit polls: Pennsylvania voters are not enamored with either Biden or Trump
From CNN's Tami Luhby
More than 4 in 10 of Pennsylvania voters approve of the way Joe Biden is handling his job, but a majority disapprove of the president, who was born and raised in Scranton, according to the preliminary national results of the exit poll conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research.
Voters in the commonwealth did not have a high opinion of former President Donald Trump either. Just 4 in 10 had a favorable opinion, while nearly 6 in 10 had an unfavorable opinion.
Meanwhile, just over half of Pennsylvania voters said Biden was not a factor in their vote. For those who said the president was a factor, more than 1 in 10 said they support him, while nearly a third said they oppose him.
More than half of Pennsylvania voters also said that Trump was not a factor in their vote. For those who said the former president was a factor, close to 1 in 5 said they support him, while about a quarter opposes him.
To read more on the exit polls, click here.
Exit polls: Warnock holds edge among Georgia voters when it comes to showing good judgment
From CNN's Ariel Edwards-Levy
Georgia voters were more likely to say that Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock has good judgment than they were to say the same of his Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, according to the preliminary results of the Georgia exit poll conducted for CNN and other news networks by Edison Research.
But more said Warnock holds views that are too extreme than said the same about Walker.
Just shy of half, about 46%, said only Warnock shows good judgment, with about 28% saying only Walker does, and nearly a fifth that neither candidate does.
Voters in Georgia were close to evenly split on whether or not Warnock’s views were too extreme. Slightly more than 4 in 10 said Walker’s views were too extreme, with just over half saying they were not.
Asked which candidate quality mattered most to their Senate vote, 36% of Georgia voters said they wanted a candidate who shared their values, 32% a candidate who had honesty and integrity, 19% a candidate who cared about people like them, and 8% someone who had the right experience.
Watch CNN's John King and Jake Tapper at the Magic Wall:
Palm Beach County election chief says approaching storm will not have a big effect on election counting
From CNN's Fredreka Schouten
Officials in Palm Beach County, Florida, intend to keep their main elections office open “as long as we possibly can” to count ballots and deliver midterm election results, the county’s Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link said Tuesday.
Parts of the county are under evacuation orders starting early Wednesday morning, as Tropical Storm Nicole is expected to make landfall in the state late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning between West Palm Beach and Melbourne. The storm is currently expected to reach Florida as a hurricane.
“At this point, we’re thinking we can make it through without a big effect on the election,” Link said in a telephone interview with CNN.
Worsening road conditions Tuesday night could cause some delays as officials retrieve ballot drop boxes, but Link said workers “will stay here until we’re done.”
She anticipates that the county will process mail-in and Election Day ballots Tuesday night and could post the lion’s share of initial, unofficial results on the county’s website by 9 p.m.
Link said workers plan to return Wednesday to answer voters’ questions and continue processing the remaining classes of ballots, including those cast provisionally at polling places and mail-in ballots that need to be corrected in some way. Voters have until 5 p.m. Thursday to fix, or “cure” flaws on mail ballots.
Link did not know early Tuesday evening how many of those kinds of ballots still were outstanding. A little more than 1 million registered voters live in Palm Beach County.
CNN Projection: Republican Sen. Tim Scott will win South Carolina Senate race
From CNN staff
Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the chamber, will win reelection, CNN projects, and defeat Democratic state Rep. Krystle Matthews.