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Sam Levin in San Francisco (now), Tom McCarthy and Erin Durkin in New York (earlier)

Ivanka Trump joins father on stage at final rally – as it happened

Summary

Trump has finished his Missouri rally, where he brought Sean Hannity on stage hours after the Fox News host insisted he would not be campaigning with the president. Trump repeated his attacks on immigrants, the media, Democrats, and the women who spoke out about Justice Brett Kavanaugh, again inspiring “lock her up” and “CNN sucks” chants.

We’re ending our live coverage for now, thanks for following along. We’ll be back early in the morning with all-day coverage of election day and the results. Here’s a summary of some the big events of the day and dispatches from Guardian journalists.

Trump is now attacking Democratic senator Claire McCaskill, who beat Todd Akin in 2012 after the Republican infamously said, “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” Trump said she got “lucky” last time:

She got a pass, let’s put it that way ... It was a sad thing that happened.

The president also mocked McCaskill for slamming “crazy Democrats” in a recent interview: “She will never ever vote for us on the big things.”

Trump brought Kellyanne Conway, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Ivanka Trump and Ronna McDaniel (RNC chair) on stage with him for his final rally, saying, “I’ve always said that women are smarter than men, sorry men ... They work hard for us.”

Here’s video of Hannity joining Trump on stage, directly contradicting the Fox News host’s statement hours earlier, which said: “I will not be on stage campaigning with the president.”

Updated

Fox host Jeanine Pirro has also joined Trump on stage, making the “Fox-White House fusion is complete”, as reporter Daniel Dale put it:

Fox News said earlier in the day that Hannity would not be campaigning with Trump, though the president’s campaign advertised the host as a “special guest”:

Sean Hannity joins Trump on stage

Trump started his final rally of the night praising Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, saying: “Do we love Sean, by the way?” Trump brought Hannity on stage:

“All those people in the back are fake news,” Hannity said, pointing to the media, before praising the president’s accomplishments: “The one thing that has made and defined your presidency more than anything else – promises made, promises kept.”

Trump also criticized the media, saying: “You have some very fine people back there, but you have some that aren’t so fine.”

Earlier in the day, Hannity falsely tweeted that he would not be campaigning for Trump and that he would not be on stage with the president:

Updated

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh is speaking before Trump takes the stage in Missouri. Limbaugh is portraying the president as a victim of “abuse” and claiming that Trump’s message is not about race or gender, but about preserving “culture”:

He doesn’t need to put up with the abuse, but he does, because he sincerely believes America is headed on the wrong track. They say we are divisive, but we are not divisive, we are defending an America that has strayed from our founding – nothing to do with race, nothing to do with gender, nothing to do with this ... identity politics ... it has to do with culture.”

Sean Hannity’s “interview” with Trump has included the Fox News host reciting the president’s talking points to him:

Hannity has also made fun of Nate Silver. Fox News previously teased the live segment as a “powerful interview”.

Before Trump’s final rally in Missouri, some highlights from the meme of the day:

Oprah, who has been the subject of racist robocalls in Georgia, where she is supporting Democrat Stacey Abrams, posted a response on Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

The antidote to Hate... VOTE your love!

A post shared by Oprah (@oprah) on

“Jesus don’t like ugly. And we know what to do about that,” she said. “Vote. Tomorrow, show up.”

Trump’s final rally of the day will take place in Missouri this evening, with the president promoting Fox News host Sean Hannity as a “special guest”. Hannity tweeted this morning that he would be doing a live show and interview and “not be on stage campaigning with the President”.

Hannity is now, however, signing autographs and Trump campaign gear at the rally:

Hannity, who has a history of promoting conspiracy theories and spreading falsehoods, has campaigned for GOP candidates in the past:

Hannity is now listing Trump’s accomplishments:

Updated

Beto O’Rourke, who is running for Senate in Texas, has been the most tweeted-about candidate since early voting began, according to a Twitter spokesperson:

Stacey Abrams, the Democratic nominee for governor in Georgia, was in second place, Twitter told CNN. Senator Ted Cruz, who O’Rourke is fighting to unseat in Texas, was in third place.

O’Rourke’s campaign has also been one of the top spenders on social media ads during the midterms.

There are a record number of women, Native American, Muslim, Latinos, immigrants and LGBT people on the ballot this week, and Congress is expected to become younger and more diverse after the election. The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino has more details on some of the historic campaigns:

The House GOP, however, is “projected to become more white, male and conservative after its female and minority members face strong challengers at the ballot box on Tuesday”, according to the Washington Post.

Updated

This is a fear election. Fear around immigration and security versus fear about health care coverage, according to analysis by Signify, an ethical data science company. And of the two, health care seems to be the winning issue despite Donald Trump’s dire warnings of a caravan heading towards the US-Mexico border.

Signify pulled the most shared online articles about certain midterm candidates, used machine learning to extract topics and manually categorised the most shared coverage as pro or anti each candidate.

In the Arizona Senate race between Democrat Kyrsten Sinema and Republican Martha McSally, it found healthcare is more than twice as important to voters as immigration or national security. One in six adults and three in eight children in the state are dependent on Medicaid, the public health insurance programme for people on low incomes.

“Sinema has been relentlessly attacked as unpatriotic and soft on terrorists and immigration by her opponent and backers,” Signify’s report said. “This has been highly effective and Sinema has really struggled for traction: she is basically defined in terms of online profile by the things people have said about her, and the things that have been said back in her defence. It’s not a pretty picture.

“However, Sinema has a strong chance to win as she has a clear position on healthcare, and the issue of pre-existing conditions. McSally has been caught in several inconsistencies regarding Obamacare, pre-existing conditions and her intentions in regard of repealing or protecting Arizona’s seniors. While McSally is a decorated veteran who is perceived as strong, articles about her hypocrisy on healthcare are more than twice as likely to be shared by voters than coverage of her patriotism.

“On the issue of immigration, she gets 1,900 shares per piece of coverage, and this is a key issue in a border state. However, on healthcare hypocrisy, she gets 3,500 shares per piece – it matters a lot more.”

Signify says that in social media terms, a “share” is a much more important identifier than a like, comment or view because it indicates the sharer really cares about a topic. A “share” also exponentially increases the number of people looking at an article or video.

Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight is out with his final overview of his predictions for the House:

It’s a long and nuanced analysis, but the bottom line is that he believes there is an 86% chance the Democrats win the House:

Republican hopes to keep the House are fairly slim. Democrats have been dealt a good hand and have done a great job of playing it, maximizing their number of opportunities to make seat gains. There’s still a chance — about a 15 percent chance — that their voters won’t turn out in the numbers they need, and they’ll fall a few seats short. But it would require polling and a lot of other data to be fairly wrong, and it would defy a lot of historical precedent as to what happens in midterm elections under unpopular presidents.

Steve King, the embattled Republican congressman known for being a white nationalist sympathizer who frequently makes racist and anti-semitic comments, has the continued support of senator Chuck Grassley:

“He’s worked with so many things that are important to Iowa,” Grassley said of King, calling him an “ally”.

Last week, the National Republican Congressional Committee said it would not support King due to his “words and actions”.

The Department of Homeland Security, FBI and Department of Justice have released a joint statement about election day, saying there was no evidence of the elections being “compromised”:

At this time we have no indication of compromise of our nation’s election infrastructure that would prevent voting, change vote counts, or disrupt the ability to tally votes.

But Americans should be aware that foreign actors – and Russia in particular – continue to try to influence public sentiment and voter perceptions through actions intended to sow discord. They can do this by spreading false information about political processes and candidates, lying about their own interference activities, disseminating propaganda on social media, and through other tactics. The American public can mitigate these efforts by remaining informed, reporting suspicious activity, and being vigilant consumers of information...”

Trump and federal law enforcement officials have also faced accusations of voter suppression and intimidation in the final days before the election. Trump tweeted earlier today that law enforcement “has been strongly notified to watch closely for any ILLEGAL VOTING”, and the DOJ has said it is sending staff to monitor 35 jurisdictions for compliance with voting rights laws.

The latest joint announcement from DOJ, FBI and DHS did not mention voter suppression.

Trump again has appeared to make false claims about his rally crowds. In Indiana, he boasted of “thousands and thousands of people” outside who could not get in. But reporters following Trump said they did not see people waiting to get inside.

The president appeared to acknowledge that he is not interested in bringing the country together at this time, saying at his Indiana rally:

I want to unite. I do eventually want to unite, but the fact is we’re driving them crazy. They don’t know what to do ... Hopefully it’s going to all come together some day like a beautiful puzzle. They have been on a shameless campaign to … defame and destroy. It’s ridiculous.”

In an earlier TV interview, when asked about his regrets, he said he wished he had a “softer tone”. But during this latest rally, he has repeated his aggressive attacks and mockery of his typical targets, including Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi and Dianne Feinstein.

Numerous protesters have briefly interrupted Trump’s Indiana rally. Here’s video of one of them shouting, “Fuck the president!”

Trump has repeatedly responded, “Go back home to momma!”

Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders rally in Fort Wayne

Trump has brought out Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders to speak at his Fort Wayne rally. It’s an unusual move to have his White House staffers speak at a political rally.

Conway emphasized that she was campaigning in her “personal capacity”, adding “Joe must go!”, referring to Joe Donnelly, the Democrat fighting to keep his Senate seat in Indiana. Conway has previously faced ethics complaints, accused of violations last year after she promoted Ivanka Trump’s branded apparel on TV.

Trump also brought out Ivanka, repeating his comment that it was no longer “politically correct” to call women “beautiful”. He repeatedly called her “smart”, prompting some men in the crowd to shout “and beautiful!”. The president responded, “Don’t say that!”

Trump is now giving his stump speech in Indiana, falsely linking the migrant caravan to “crime” and the Democrats, and claiming that the Democrats are pushing a “socialist nightmare”. A large “lock her up” chant has emerged in the crowd as Trump has gone after Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s accusers:

Brian Kemp robocalls push false claims

Back in Georgia’s high-stakes race for governor, Brian Kemp is targeting Stacey Abrams with robocalls filled with false claims, CNN is reporting:

“Radical Stacey Abrams is so extreme that she wants to allow illegal immigrants to vote in this election,” a robocall from the Kemp campaign says. “We can’t let her steal this election. It’s up to you to stop her.”

Abrams has not said she supports giving undocumented immigrants the right to vote. Here’s how Abrams responded to this question in a debate:

A spokesperson for Abrams told CNN of the robocalls, “Lies, false accusations, and misleading calls have become the hallmark of Brian Kemp’s increasingly desperate campaign.”

When he was asked in a TV interview if he has any regrets, Trump responded that he could’ve had a “softer tone”:

This may be the first time he’s answered this question with an actual “regret”:

Trump on tax returns: 'I can do whatever I want'

Sam Levin here, taking over our live coverage of the final day of campaigning. Trump is scheduled to speak soon in Indiana. Before the rally, reporters asked him if he was concerned that Democrats would go after his tax returns if they win the House. He responded:

Asked about the stakes in Indiana, Trump responded:

In Indiana, they like our candidate. It’s really about the candidate, but if they want to give me the credit or the liability, I’ll be willing to take it.”

Trump is in Indiana. Why Indiana? He hopes to tip the senate race away from Democratic incumbent Joe Donnelly and toward challenger Mike Braun, a former Republican congressman.

But Fort Wayne is also in the northeastern quadrant of the state, close to Ohio and to Michigan, where there are some competitive House races and Republicans are trailing in important senate and gubernatorial races.

The Republicans are bailing the boat in a Maryland district won big by Trump with a robocall from the president.

In the call, Trump accuses “radical liberals” of taking away “seniors’ medicare” and wanting to “open our border to crime and drugs.”

“Please, go out, make America great again, reelect congressman Andy Harris, a very special person,” Trump says.

How many of these did he record?

Trump is en route to a rally in Fort Wayne, Indiana, after a campaign stop in Cleveland, scrapbooked here:

U.S. President Trump arrives at campaign rally in Cleveland, Ohio
U.S. President Trump arrives at campaign rally in Cleveland, Ohio Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters
A supporter holds up a Trump Teddy Bear during a campaign rally with U.S. President Donald Trump in Cleveland, Ohio.
A supporter holds up a Trump Teddy Bear during a campaign rally with U.S. President Donald Trump in Cleveland, Ohio. Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters
Trump listens as his daughter, White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump, speaks during a campaign rally on the eve of the U.S. midterm election in Cleveland, Ohio.
Trump listens as his daughter, White House senior adviser Ivanka Trump, speaks during a campaign rally on the eve of the U.S. midterm election in Cleveland, Ohio. Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters

Tornadoes possible for election day in southeast

“Parts of the southeastern United States are at risk for severe weather including tornadoes early on Election Day, but officials said people should still be able to vote even if storms cause power outages,” the AP reports:

A storm system moving out of eastern Arkansas late Monday ahead of a cold front will spread across the region during the overnight hours into Tuesday, NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center said.

The weather service said powerful tornadoes, damaging winds, and heavy rains are possible overnight in an area that includes eastern Arkansas, northeastern Louisiana, northern Mississippi, northern Alabama and western Tennessee as far north as the Kentucky line.

There was a slight risk of severe weather over a wider area, and more than 23 million people total live in areas with at least a marginal risk of severe weather, forecasters said. Storms could reach from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes.

In Mississippi, the secretary of state’s office said voting machines have back-up batteries. If the batteries fail, local election officials are ready to move emergency paper ballots, as already happens during occasional machine failures, said Leah Rupp Smith, a spokeswoman for the office.

Brandee Patrick, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Secretary of State’s Office, described a similar system there.

“It takes quite some time for the batteries in the machines to go out,” Patrick said. “But if all else fails, there will be paper ballots if the machines have no power.”

The Alabama secretary of state’s office is working with emergency management officials and the governor’s office and has a plan for Election Day, said spokesman John Bennett, who refused to release details “to avoid misinforming members of the public.” Several school systems in north Alabama delayed opening on Tuesday as a precaution to allow time for the system to pass.

Great question:

From the responses (which are all left-leaning):

  • a Stacey Abrams win in the Georgia gubernatorial race
  • a Beto O’Rourke win in the Texas Senate race
  • an Andrew Gillum win in the Florida gubernatorial race
  • Dana Rohrabacher losing in California CD-48
  • Steve King losing in Iowa CD-4

In Illinois, once-red suburbs swing blue

Early this week, an underdog candidate savaged his opponent for “using the language of Donald Trump” and insisted “civility is on the ballot” in the looming midterm elections. The speaker was not a Democrat.

It was Peter Roskam, a six-term Republican from a gerrymandered district who nonetheless finds himself clinging onto his seat, and in doing so attempting to cast his progressive opponent as the Trumpian one in the race.

Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., arrives for the House Republican Conference meeting in the Capitol on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018.
Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., arrives for the House Republican Conference meeting in the Capitol on Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018. Photograph: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call,Inc.

In suburban districts across the US, politics as usual has been turned on its head. Nowhere is this more so than in two districts outside Chicago that were long represented by Republican stalwarts such as Henry Hyde and Dennis Hastert. Among the prosperous and well-educated suburbanites who once made up its base, the GOP is facing rejection.

Roskam has long been aware of the threat. A former member of House Republican leadership who helped write the 2017 tax cut bill, he represents Illinois’ sixth district. It is one of the wealthiest districts in the country. In 2016, Hillary Clinton won it by seven points. In 2012, Mitt Romney won it by even more.

From the sixth, the threat of a blue wave of Democratic victories has rolled out to the exurban expanses of the 14th district, which is represented by Randy Hultgren. Out where cornfields are being gobbled up by subdivisions and Starbucks, he is in a tight race on once-red turf that Clinton narrowly lost.

Read the full piece here.

Sad sad sad sad sad sad sad

Here are 26 pictures of Donald Trump’s approval rating via the director of the renowned Marquette Law School poll:

Trump takes a swipe at the PC police which goes over well with his Cleveland crowd. Multiple important House races, a Senate race and a gubernatorial election in Ohio concluding tomorrow.

From the comments, a prediction:

User avatar for TurtleRocket

Any predictions how this will all pan out? I think Trump will most likely get a bloody nose as he’s possibly firing up dem voters more than soft republicans, but who knows. This really is a test of America’s soul.

User avatar for henchard11

GOP keep Senate 52/53 to 48/47... and, narrowly, the House. I hope I’m wrong.

That Senate prediction is right in line with most US elections forecasts while the House prediction is pessimistic for the Dems, who might need to win as few as seven to eight seats out of 30 toss-up races to claim a House majority (the Democrats need 23 seats to gain a majority in the House including in races that do not appear to be tossups). Forecaster Nate Silver, who at the time gave Trump an almost 30% chance of winning, currently gives Republicans a 12.5% chance of holding the House.

What say you?

Updated

Fun list from CNN’s Jake Tapper. Races to watch to judge how the night is unfolding, earlyish-on:

Pictures

Democratic congressional candidate Ilhan Omar addresses supporters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 5, 2018.
Democratic congressional candidate Ilhan Omar addresses supporters in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on 5 November. Photograph: Kerem Yucel/AFP/Getty Images
Voters fill out forms as they wait in line at an Early Vote Center inside Regents Assembly Church to cast their ballots in the 2018 mid-term election in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Voters fill out forms as they wait in line at an early vote center inside Regents Assembly church to cast their ballots in the 2018 midterm election in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photograph: Craig Lassig/EPA
llinois Governor Bruce Rauner makes a stop at the Harley-Davidson store as he campaigns for the re-election in McHenry, Illinois.
llinois Governor Bruce Rauner makes a stop at the Harley-Davidson store as he campaigns for the re-election in McHenry, Illinois. Photograph: Kamil Krzaczyński/EPA
Republican nominee for Governor of Florida Ron DeSantis attends a rally at Freedom Pharmacy on the final day of campaigning in the midterm elections on November 5, 2018 in Orlando, Florida. (Also pictured: Senator Marco Rubio.)
Republican nominee for Florida governor Ron DeSantis attends a rally at Freedom Pharmacy on the final day of campaigning in the midterm elections on 5 November. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Updated

Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs is covering Trump’s pre-election blitz of three states and she tips us to the heavyweight passenger manifest:

OK, politics whizzes – which races are notably absent from this list?

North Dakota (where Trump won by 36 points) looks lost to the Democrats, judging by this list – although ad-buying rates could mean that a state with top-ten levels of advertising in terms of airtime does not make the $$ list above.

Also absent: Pennsylvania, where Democrat Bob Casey is defending his seat against a Trump-style congressman, and Ohio, where Democrat Sherrod Brown appears to have beaten back a challenge by a Republican congressman in a state that Trump won by 8 points.

Also not on there are Michigan and Wisconsin, two states won by Trump where strong-looking Democratic incumbents are defending seats.

What’s your forecast for the Senate breakdown? What do you think of those races in Arizona and Nevada? Will Dean Heller, once thought to be the Republicans’ most vulnerable senate incumbent, pull it off?

Updated

Both Democrats and Republicans are working to get out the vote:

The vice-president has also been cranking out endorsement messages for local Republicans all day long. Scrolling his timeline he’s tweeting about races that from the outside look extremely close.

Except for perhaps this one – Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers from east Washington. This looks like the Democrats’ best chance to beat a member of the Republican leadership – McMorris Rodgers is chairwoman of the House Republican Congress and the highest-ranking Republican woman in the land – but McMorris Rodgers appears to have the advantage from the (scant) polling available.

Updated

Watch live: race, politics and the media with CJR and the Guardian

At Columbia Journalism School in New York, Kyle Pope, Jelani Cobb, Lydia Polgreen and other experts discuss race, representation and the media on the eve of the midterm elections

From the comments:

User avatar for ID7793276

Why does the word gubernatorial make me sick in my mouth every time I read it. Its such a silly word it should be in the onion or the ulster fry

Agreed. Particularly as part of the triumvirate “House, Senate and gubernatorial elections”. Six syllables on that beast. There are 36 gubernatorial races this cycle by the way (governors serve four-year terms) and we could end up with a roughly even split in the number of statehouses each party controls which is very important when it comes to things like redistricting, voting rights legislation or anything else a governor might sign. Gubernatorial.

Updated

We have comments

We have comments! Please join in, and apologies for not realizing they were turned off earlier when we posed this question:

What politics stories are you following most closely this election eve?

Trump on racist ad: 'I don't know about it'

Trump is asked about news organizations and Facebook pulling his racist immigration ad. “I don’t know about it,” he says, explaining, “we have a lot of ads” and “a lot of things are offensive”.

Video via Daily Beast:

If Trump wishes to learn more about the controversy he could check with his campaign manager, who is currently flipping out on Twitter about not being able to buy airtime for the racist ad:

Updated

Trump is traveling to Paris at the end of the week for an 11 November ceremony on the centenary of the end of the first world war. But Trump says he probably won’t meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin until the G20 meetings next month in Argentina.

Update: Jacobs, who’s with Bloomberg, adds this:

“I will announce before the end of the week,” Trump tells me when I asked how his UN ambassador search is going.

It is always by the end of the week. Also never.

Updated

Mark your calendars.

Obama: 'Who we are is on the ballot'

Obama almost lost his voice. A hoarse former president makes a closing argument for Democrats in Virginia:

Updated

Facebook rejects racist Trump ad

Facebook has joined Fox News, CNN, NBC News and others in refusing to air Donald Trump’s racist anti-immigration campaign ad, CNN reported.

“This ad violates Facebook’s advertising policy against sensational content so we are rejecting it. While the video is allowed to be posted on Facebook, it cannot receive paid distribution,” Facebook said in a statement quoted by CNN.

Previous coverage here and here.

Hi, this is Tom McCarthy in New York taking over from Erin.

What politics stories are you following most closely this election eve?

Here’s a tidbit pursuant to our earlier post about Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams’ low opinion of opponent Brian Kemp’s announcement of an investigation of the state Republican party.

Updated

The justice department (DoJ) will send personnel to 35 jurisdictions in 19 states to “monitor compliance with the federal voting rights laws,” it announced Monday.

“This year we are using every lawful tool that we have, both civil and criminal, to protect the rights of millions of Americans to cast their vote unimpeded at one of more than 170,000 precincts across America,” the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, said. “Likewise, fraud in the voting process will not be tolerated. Fraud also corrupts the integrity of the ballot.”

The announcement came after President Trump vaguely but ominously warned: “Law Enforcement has been strongly notified to watch closely for any ILLEGAL VOTING.”

The states where DoJ civil rights division personnel will deploy are Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Virginia.

Updated

Stephen King lets Iowa know he's tired of being confused with Steve King

Horror novelist Stephen King has revealed his own living nightmare: being confused with Republican Iowa congressman Steve King. The similarly named author tweeted Sunday: “Iowans, for personal reasons I hope you’ll vote Steve King out. I’m tired of being confused with this racist dumbbell.”

Rep. King has a history of making racist remarks and associating with white supremacists. He supported Faith Goldy, a white nationalist candidate for mayor of Toronto and has ties to the far-right Austria Freedom party. The Anti-Defamation League last week asked House speaker Paul Ryan to formally censure King over alleged anti-Semitic words and actions.

The race in King’s district has become surprisingly close, with recent polls showing he has just a one point lead over his Democratic opponent JD Scholten. Trump won the district by 27 points in 2016.

Updated

Donald Trump is promoting Fox News’s Sean Hannity as a “special guest” at his rally in Florida Monday night.

It’s the latest sign of coziness between Trump and Fox. Still, Hannity insists that he’s not campaigning for Trump or Republicans, but will be there to interview the president and cover the rally.

A polling site in North Miami ran out of ballots Sunday, the Miami Herald reported.

Voters reported waiting more than three hours to cast early votes in the mostly black neighborhood.

And the printers on site failed, forcing poll workers to rely on pre-printed paper ballots, the Herald reported. Those ballots ran out for two precincts. Voters waited 45 minutes for additional ballots to be brought to the site.

Florida has two hotly-contested statewide races. The governor’s race pits Democrat Andrew Gillum against Republican Ron DeSantis. In the Senate race, Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson is being challenged for his seat by current the governor, Rick Scott.

Updated

Fox News has decided to stop running a Donald Trump ad criticized as racist, per CNN.

NBC, which aired a 30 second version of the ad Sunday night, said Monday it would no longer run it. CNN refused to run it all along. The ad features a Mexican immigrant who killed two police officers while in the country illegally.

Romney favored heavily in Utah

Onetime Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is heavily favored to win a Utah Senate race on Tuesday.

The Guardian’s David Taylor reports:

The question is: what will he be like? Will someone who was a trenchant critic of Trump in 2016 become a thorn in the side of the president? Or is he just too much of a conformist to lead a Republican counter-revolution?

Those who hope Romney might step into the shoes of the late John McCain as Trump critic-in-chief are likely to feel short-changed. Or as Boyd Matheson, a Republican strategist and former congressional chief of staff, put it: “Anyone who is hoping to see a cage fight with Trump is going to be disappointed.”

Updated

Dan Crenshaw, a congressional candidate and military veteran who lost an eye while serving in Afghanistan, called a Saturday Night Live joke at his expense “dark” but said he won’t demand a “hollow” apology.

Crenshaw is a Republican running for a House seat in Texas. He was a Navy Seal who did five tours of duty and lost his right eye in an IED explosion in Afghanistan.

On SNL, comedian Pete Davidson showed a photo of Crenshaw and quipped: “You may be surprised to hear he’s a congressional candidate from Texas, and not a hit man in a porno movie,” before adding, “I’m sorry, I know he lost his eye in war, or whatever.”

“We have thick skin, but as veterans, it’s hard for us to understand why war wounds would elicit such raucous laughter from an audience,” Crenshaw told CNN Monday. “I think they should’ve rethought that joke a little bit – if you can even call it a joke.”

“I don’t want some hollow apology,” he said. “I think he’s exposed himself. I think he’s exposed himself for who he really is.”

Updated

House speaker Paul Ryan called Donald Trump on Sunday to ask him to focus on the booming economy in his closing midterms pitch, Politico reported.

The president balked, saying his focus on immigration has successfully fired up his base.

Trump has spent the weeks before the midterms doubling down on his anti-immigrant rhetoric – stoking fears about a caravan of migrants bound for the United States, airing an ad falsely claiming that Democrats let a cop killer into the country, and threatening to end birthright citizenship, even though such a move would likely violate the 14th amendment to the constitution.

Politico reports that Republicans now fear Trump has gone too far and could alienate voters in pivotal House districts.

“Trump has hijacked the election,” one senior House Republican aide told Politico. “This is not what we expected the final weeks of the election to focus on.”

Updated

Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams called her opponent’s effort to investigate the state Democratic party a “witch-hunt” Monday.

Republican candidate Brian Kemp – who is also Georgia’s secretary of state – on Sunday announced an investigation into what he called an attempted hack of the state’s voter registration system. He provided few details and no evidence, CNN reported.

“It’s wrong to call it an investigation,” Abrams told CNN Monday. “It’s a witch-hunt that was created by someone who is abusing his power.”

“It’s a complete and utter fabrication,” she added.

Updated

Donald Trump, who made false claims of rampant voter fraud in 2016, is now saying there will be “Maximum Criminal Penalties” for “ILLEGAL VOTING”.

It’s not clear what, if anything, he is referring to. Elections are run by states, which also handle any prosecutions for voting by people ineligible to do so, which, while very rare, do occur.

Critics are calling Trump’s tweet an effort to scare people away from the polls.

Updated

Florida senator. Marco Rubio, campaigning for Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis Monday, predicted a “red wave” instead of a blue one in Tuesday’s election.

The Hill reports that Rubio compared the midterms to the 2016 presidential election, when Hillary Clinton was favored to win but Donald Trump pulled off an upset.

“Forget about a blue wave,” Rubio said. “A red wave of votes started coming in. That’s what’s gonna happen again now.”

The senator was in Jacksonville campaigning with DeSantis, who is up against Tallahassee mayor Andrew Gillum in a tight governor’s race.

Updated

Dispatch: wealthy Democrat Pritzker favored for Illinois governor

In Chicago, Kari Lydersen reports on a very expensive Illinois governor’s race:

In Southern Illinois farming and coal mining towns in recent weeks, “JB” signs sprouted amongst placards for local candidates – disproportionately Republican – and occasional corner stands selling Donald Trump T-shirts.

It’s another sign that wealthy venture capitalist JB Pritzker, a Democrat, is favored (by double digits in recent polls) to unseat incumbent Republican Bruce Rauner, also a multi-millionaire investor, in what could be the most expensive governor’s race in US history.

Rauner won in 2014 framing himself as a political outsider appealing to the common man – especially in downstate Illinois, where residents resent Chicago’s control of state politics and the influence of state House speaker Michael Madigan. A recent political ad depicted Pritzker and Madigan getting married, seen by many as a not-so-subtle appeal to downstate Republicans who view Rauner as too socially liberal.

During his first term Rauner deadlocked with the Democratic-controlled legislature led by Madigan; the state was without a budget for two years and incurred a billion dollars in debt penalties because of the impasse. Rauner also battled with labor unions and cut funding for social services.

Pritzker has never held elected office, but is tight with the state’s Democratic establishment and has proposed liberal policies.

The Chicago African American electorate may be alienated, however, by offensive comments Pritzker made in phone calls with former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich taped by the FBI and later released; and images recently circulated of a Pritzker campaign staffer wearing what appeared to be blackface.

Rauner’s downstate base seems to feel he failed to deliver on his promises to use his business acumen to whip the state into financial shape. Many are also furious over his handling of an epidemic of deadly Legionnaires’ disease at a veteran’s home. In the Republican primary, he barely beat ultra-conservative state representative Jeanne Ives.

Ted Hartke, a land surveyor who grew up on a hog farm in central Illinois, was among those who supported Rauner last time seeing him as “a non-politician who had some business sense”. But Hartke was upset that Rauner didn’t take an anti-abortion stance, and now feels the state has a choice between “two terrible choices”.”

Updated

Sarah Sanders suggests Trump is planning health policy protecting pre-existing conditions

In her appearance on Fox News this morning, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders sought to counteract one of Democrats’ signature campaign messages – that Republican healthcare policies would strip protections from people with pre-existing conditions.

The healthcare bill backed by Trump and Congressional Republicans, which narrowly failed to pass the Senate, would have repealed the Affordable Care Act, including its requirement that insurance companies cover people with pre-existing medical conditions.

This morning, Sanders suggests that Trump is planning some unspecified healthcare policy that would include protections.

Updated

NBC has now reversed course and decided to stop airing a Donald Trump ad criticized as racist. The network ran the ad Sunday night during an NFL game. CNN had refused to run it.

More than 370 companies are offering employees paid time off to vote, the New York Times reports.

They include Walmart - the country’s largest private employer with 1.5 million workers - Tyson Foods, and Levi Strauss.

Complaints about malfunctioning voting machines are coming in in Georgia and Texas, Politico reports.

Both states, where early voting is underway, have electronic voting machines that lack a paper backup. Civil rights groups in both states have filed complaints charging that the touchscreen machines deleted some people’s votes for Democratic candidates or switched them to Republican votes.

Georgia has a tight governor’s race between Republican Brian Kemp and Democrat Stacey Abrams. In Texas, Democrat Beto O’Rourke is challenging Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

In Georgia, Kemp and Abrams are preparing for a possible runoff, which will happen if neither candidate gets more than 50% of the vote. With a libertarian candidate also on the ballot, it’s a real possibility.

Updated

NFL players are weighing in on the importance of the midterm elections.


In an article in the Players’ Tribune, Chris Long, Kelvin Beachum, Matt Forte, and Josh Norman urge fans to turn out:

Right now, our collective national identity is one of pain and despair, of confusion and anger. We are fractured, we are hurting and too many are finding themselves as mourners. But America’s true identity is one of greatness. We may have deep scars, but from times of darkness we have emerged as a nation with the courage to protect our neighbor from harm and the willingness to insist on our shared values of hope, of inclusion, of community. We have always stood up for each other. We have always been able to reclaim our identity.

On November 6, we can return to that place. We can raise our voice and remind our officials and each other that we are more than the hate we have seen. With our vote, we can say that we believe in and are committed to the happiness, the health and the lives of all Americans. We can tell the world that we are a country worthy of our reputation as the world’s greatest nation.

This is what is at stake with your vote.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Monday accused Democrats of campaigning on “obstruction”, allowing that they may take control of the House.

“I still hope that Republicans win the House but if they don’t, I think what you’ve seen the Democrats start talking about is the only message they have, and that’s one of obstruction,” she said Monday morning on Fox & Friends, Politico reports. “They have no policies, they have no solutions. America’s got some real problems we have to deal with.”

Donald Trump has also backed away from predictions that Republicans would keep the House, instead saying he is focusing more on the Senate.

Updated

The New York Times zeroes in on the House race in New York’s Hudson Valley, which looks to be a bellwether for national trends:

The race – in a swing district a couple of hours north of New York City that, just like the nation, voted twice for President Barack Obama and then swung to President Trump in 2016 – has become one of the most expensive of 2018.

It is a battle, in miniature, of the same fault lines and forces buffeting the midterms across the country, with Democrats blitzing Republicans on health care and Republicans trying to rally their base by leveraging sometimes inflammatory cultural issues. The Republican, Representative John Faso, is white; the Democrat, Antonio Delgado, is black.

The race has particularly drawn attention for ads denigrating Delgado’s past as a rap artist. The race is too close to call, one of several swing House races across New York. Another pits indicted Representative Chris Collins – who has been largely MIA on the campaign trail, the Buffalo News reports – against Democrat Nathan McMurray.

Meanwhile, New York’s governor’s race, where incumbent Democrat Andrew Cuomo held a commanding lead, has narrowed somewhat, according to a new Siena College Research Institute poll. Cuomo now leads Republican challenger Marc Molinaro by a 49% to 36% margin. Molinaro has emphasized his independence from Donald Trump, who he didn’t vote for, in the heavily Democratic state.

Absentee ballot counts in the state are way ahead of where they were in 2014 and in some counties on par with presidential years, the Albany Times Union reports.

Updated

Brian Kemp is both Georgia’s secretary of state, in charge of overseeing elections, and Georgia’s Republican candidate for governor. It is an arrangement that has drawn considerable criticism for the apparent conflict of interest.

Here’s an example of the awkward dance, via a press release annotated by Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall. In it, Candidate Kemp comments on an announcement from Secretary of State Kemp of an investigation into the state Democratic party.

Updated

NBC aired a controversial campaign ad approved by Donald Trump stoking fears on immigration.

The TV ad is a shorter version of an ad Trump tweeted last week, which featured Luis Bracamontes, a Mexican national who was in the country illegally when he killed two sheriff’s deputies, according to the New York Times.

The longer ad falsely claimed that Democrats let the cop killer into the country. The shorter TV version omitted that claim, but CNN refused to air it as a paid ad, calling it racist.

“CNN has made it abundantly clear in its editorial coverage that this ad is racist. When presented with an opportunity to be paid to take a version of this ad, we declined. Those are the facts,” the network’s communications team tweeted.

NBC aired the ad during Sunday Night Football, in the middle of a game between the New England Patriots and Green Bay Packers, according to the Times.

Updated

Youth turnout in the 2018 midterm elections is expected to surge, according to new polling from NextGen America, a liberal advocacy group led by the billionaire Tom Steyer.

The Guardian’s Ben Jacobs reports that the the group’s data shows 37% of young Americans in six key states say they will definitely vote or have already voted. In the 2014 midterms, only 23% voted.

The voters, age 18 to 35, lean heavily Democratic, preferring a Democrat to a Republican on a generic ballot by 59% to 33%.

It’s the latest data to predict higher young voter turnout. A poll by the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics found that 40% of voters under 30 said they would “definitely” vote.

Rihanna and Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose are not pleased that Donald Trump has been using their music at his campaign rallies, the Guardian’s Ammar Kalia reports.

Rihanna’s 2007 single Don’t Stop the Music was played at a Trump rally in Tennesee, prompting the singer to respond on Twitter, saying: “Not for much longer” and calling Trump’s events “tragic rallies”.

Rihanna’s rebuke to the president came hours after she endorsed Andrew Gillum, the Democratic candidate for governor of Florida, in an Instagram post.

And Axl Rose who this weekend accused the Trump campaign of “using loopholes in the various venues’ blanket performance licenses … without the songwriters’ consent” after learning that Guns N’ Roses’ 1988 song Sweet Child O’ Mine was being played at the president’s rallies.

Axl Rose also said that Guns N’ Roses had “formally requested r music not b used at Trump rallies or Trump associated events”.

Musicians don’t necessarily have the legal ability to stop their music from being played at public events, in contrast to campaign ads where they have a stronger claim.

Updated

A New York state lawmaker who lost the Democratic nomination spent thousands in campaign funds on a new Mercedes, used it to buy booze, and then assaulted a reporter who asked about it, the New York Post reports.

The wonky background first: Brooklyn senator Jesse Hamilton is one of a group of Senate Democrats who were part of the Independent Democratic Conference, which allied with Republicans and gave them control of the Senate. In September, six of the eight members were defeated in primaries – including Hamilton, who lost to challenger Zellnor Myrie. But Hamilton remains on the ballot as the nominee of some minor parties, which makes him a candidate who under New York’s notoriously loose laws, can spend campaign funds on just about whatever he wants.

So, he spent $3,700 to lease a brand new Mercedes Benz, the Post reports. With little campaigning to do, he drove it to a nearby liquor store to buy mini bottles of booze on a recent afternoon. Upon returning home, Hamilton grabbed a Post reporter who asked him about his campaign spending, shoved him, and tried to snatch a phone out of his hand as he shouted: “What’d you say to me?”

Updated

Democrats have slight edge in Florida races, poll finds

Democrats have a slight edge in Florida’s races for governor and US Senate, a new NBC News/Marist poll finds.

Democrat Andrew Gillum leading in the governor’s race 50% to 46% over Republican Ron DeSantis, within the poll’s margin of error.

Democrat senator Bill Nelson also has the same narrow lead, 50% to 46%, over Governor Rick Scott, who is challenging him for the Senate seat.

NBC and Marist also found a too close to call Senate race in Missouri.

Senator Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, got support from 50% of voters, while 47% back Republican challenger Josh Hawley.

Updated

Liberal billionaire George Soros wants to appear on Fox News to rebut the frequent criticism of him on the network – but Fox won’t have him on, his rep told CNN.

Fox News producers “refuse to have us on”, Patrick Gaspard, president of Soros’s Open Society Foundations, told CNN’s Reliable Sources Sunday.

“There’s been no opportunity for our foundation or for thoughtful Americans to come on and rebut,” Gaspard said.

Soros has been the frequent target of antisemitic conspiracy theories, and a Florida man allegedly sent him a pipe bomb along with other prominent Democratic figures.

Updated

Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg is out with an ad, starring himself, urging Americans to vote for Democrats on Tuesday.

The ad, which aired Sunday night during 60 Minutes, is part of a $5m ad buy, the Washington Post reports.

The billionaire former mayor is a Democrat turned Republican turned independent turned Democrat again who this year threw his fortune behind Democrats’ efforts to win control of Congress, and has floated the idea of a 2020 presidential bid.

“I speak to you today on the eve of the midterm elections, not as a Democrat or a Republican – I’ve been both – but as an American who is deeply concerned with the direction of our nation,” Bloomberg says in the ad.

He denounces the “shouting and hysterics” in Washington, “pointed fingers” from Trump and “fearmongering over immigration”.

“At this moment we must send a signal to Republicans in Washington that they have failed to lead,” Bloomberg says. “That’s why I’m voting Democratic.”

Updated

Donald Trump weighed in on Twitter this morning in the Florida governor’s race.

In fact, crime is down in Tallahassee and its crime rate is lower than many other Florida cities.

Updated

Democratic New Jersey senator Bob Menendez now has a 15-point lead over challenger Bob Hugin, the final Quinnipiac University poll finds.

The poll released Wednesday found 55% of likely voters back the incumbent Menendez, while 40% back Hugin.

Menendez, who narrowly escaped conviction on criminal corruption charges but chose to run for re-election anyway, has struggled in the race and some previous polls showed a dead heat.

But the latest survey shows independent likely voters have shifted back to Menendez. Independent voters back Menendez 53% to 39%, compared to 51% to 44% for Hugin in a 17 October poll.

“While they may hold their nose to cast a ballot for Sen. Bob Menendez, voters signal they want to keep New Jersey’s Senate seat in the ‘D’ column in a blue state where President Donald Trump consistently remains unpopular,” said Mary Snow, a Quinnipiac polling analyst.

Updated

Kris Kobach, the Republican candidate for governor of Kansas, has accepted financial donations from white nationalist sympathizers, the Guardian’s Stephanie Kirchgaessner reports.

Kobach, the Kansas secretary of state, is running in a tight race against the Democrat Laura Kelly.

Recent financial disclosures show that Kobach, a driving force behind dozens of proposals across the US designed to suppress minority voting and immigrant rights, has accepted thousands of dollars from white nationalists. Donors include a former official in the Trump administration who was forced to resign from the Department of Homeland Security this year after emails showed he had close ties to white supremacists and once engaged in an email exchange about a dinner party invitation that was described as “Judenfrei”, or free of Jews …

Public financial records show Kobach received political contributions from US Immigration Reform Pac, a political action committee closely affiliated with John Tanton, a retired ophthalmologist who is known as the founder of the modern American anti-immigrant movement. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which tracks hate groups, studied decades of Tanton’s correspondence. It found Tanton had close contacts with Holocaust deniers, white supremacists and antisemites. In one 1993 letter, Tanton wrote: “I’ve come to the point of view that for European-American society and culture to persist requires a European-American majority, and a clear one at that.”

In 2004, a $10,000 donation from US Immigration Reform Pac helped kickstart Kobach’s career. This year the group, which is run by Tanton’s wife, Mary Lou Tanton, donated $2,000 more to Kobach’s gubernatorial campaign …

Kobach’s campaign has also received sporadic small donations of hundreds of dollars from Paul Nachman, who is described by the SPLC as a “Montana-based extremist who regularly writes for VDARE, an overtly racist blog that serves as a hub for white nationalists and antisemites”...

Another Kobach backer is Ian Smith, who resigned from the US Department of Homeland Security earlier this year after the Atlantic published a detailed report showing that he had engaged in correspondence with white supremacists and racists.

Updated

Trump and Obama hit the stump with conflicting approaches

Donald Trump and his predecessor Barack Obama both hit the stump Sunday as election day approached.

Trump held a rally in Macon, Georgia, where he “set out his now familiar dystopia of an America overrun with criminal aliens and radical socialists,” the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington reports.

He unleashed his firepower on Stacey Abrams, the Democrat seeking to become the first black woman governor of any state in the union.

“You put Stacey in there and you are going to get Georgia turn into Venezuela,” Trump said. “Stacey Abrams wants to turn your wonderful state into a giant sanctuary city for criminal aliens, putting innocent Georgia families at the mercy of hardened criminals and predators.”

Obama, meanwhile, was in Gary, Indiana. Though he did not mention Trump by name, he laid out a picture of today’s politics that was in its own way equally dystopian, led by a man who had no qualms about lying or about playing to people’s fears.

“What kind of politics do we want?” he asked Democrats in a state where Senator Joe Donnelly is struggling to be re-elected. “What we have not seen at least in my memory is where, right now, you’ve got politicians blatantly, repeatedly, baldly, shamelessly lying. Just making up stuff.”

Despite their conflicting approaches, Trump and Obama shared one message: that the normally lacklustre and low-turnout midterms could not be more significant this time. As Obama put it: “America is at a crossroads. The character of our country is on the ballot.”

Here’s how Trump put the same idea: “This election will decide on whether we build on the extraordinary prospective we have created or whether we let the radical Democrats take a wrecking ball to our future.”

Updated

Good morning and welcome. There’s just one day left until election day.

Tomorrow’s election will determine control of the House of Representatives, the Senate and governorships around the country.

We will be bringing you live updates with dispatches from our reporters on the trail, breaking news, and election analysis.

If you need to catch up before heading to the polls, take a look at the Guardian’s explainer on what’s at stake in the midterms:

And here’s a roundup of key races and trends to watch:

Updated

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