Vote Counting Underway in Key Regions... Washington at This Hour (November 4, 2026)

[Anchor]

In-person voting for the U.S. midterm elections, which began yesterday evening (November 3), is closing across states. Let us connect to Washington to find out the local atmosphere.

Correspondent Lee Hanseok, could you first tell us about the atmosphere in regions that can gauge the trend of the House of Representatives elections?

[Reporter]

As the clock passed 7:00 PM and 8:00 PM Eastern Time, voting concluded simultaneously in major eastern states such as Kentucky, Florida, Virginia, and Georgia.

Vote counting has begun in some parts of the U.S. East, including Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, and Georgia, which is cited as a key battleground.

First, vote-counting results from key regions are coming in sequentially from the early stages.

To brief you first, in the Ohio Senate race—a key competitive region—Democratic candidate Sherrod Brown is leading Republican candidate Jon Husted by over 20 percentage points at 59%.

Notably in Texas, which is classified as a Republican stronghold, Democratic candidate James Talarico, who is frequently mentioned as a potential Democratic presidential hopeful, is leading Republican candidate Ken Paxton by more than double at 69%.

This means candidate Talarico will effectively gain strong momentum.

A Democratic dominance is continuing from the early stages.

Other places to watch closely are Kentucky's 6th Congressional District and Florida's 14th Congressional District, which are considered weather vanes for control of the House.

The Democratic Party is in an advantageous position where it can reclaim the House majority if it picks up just three more seats this time.

In particular, you can view the vote margin in Kentucky's 6th Congressional District—a Republican stronghold where then-President Trump won by a 15 percentage point margin during the last presidential election—as a core indicator.

If the Republican candidate wins narrowly by a single-digit margin or the Democratic candidate pulls off an upset, it could be interpreted as the starting signal for a so-called blue tsunami extending beyond Democratic control of the House, so both party camps are watching with tension.


[Anchor]

Was the atmosphere at the polling stations quite tense today?

[Reporter]

Yes, the U.S. Department of Justice deployed about 1,000 monitors to all 50 states.

This is an all-time high scale, triple that of 2022.

The Department of Homeland Security also stepped up pressure by publicly warning of the arrest of illegal voters.

In response, seven states led by Democratic governors, including Washington state and North Carolina, deployed the National Guard to conduct counter-monitoring to prevent voter interference and ballot box tampering, maintaining a knife-edge tension throughout voting hours.


[Anchor]

A neck-and-neck race is expected in the Senate. When can we expect to know the results of the battlegrounds?

[Reporter]

First, we can look at the core watersheds dividing the Senate dynamics as largely three.

The first watershed is four of the total seven Senate battlegrounds mentioned slightly earlier: Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, and Texas.

If there are no disruptions in vote counting, 80% to 90% or more of the votes are expected to be processed around 2:00 PM Korean time, giving a general outline of the winners.

Since the Democratic Party needs to win five out of the seven places to retake the Senate majority, it must sweep all four early locations to secure the upper hand.

On the other hand, if the Republican Party defends three or more of these places, maintaining the majority becomes likely.

The next battleground is Michigan.

Here, because each neighborhood counts votes separately and the aggregation for populous Detroit is delayed, vote totals are expected to pour in all at once around 5:00 PM Korean time.

If a conclusion is not reached even by this time, finalizing the Senate dynamics could take several more days.

This is because of Maine and Alaska, as these two places use a unique method of redistributing votes until a majority winner emerges.

In particular, since Alaska thoroughly reviews mail-in ballots as well, waiting until November 18 may be necessary for final results.

(Field Production: Park Eun-ha, Video Editing: Lee Seung-jin)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.