Election Day is here and it’s an exciting one. Tonight we’ll start to learn which party controls Congress in the final two years of President Donald Trump’s term, whether Californians want to tax billionaires and if Democrats will continue a run that dates to 2010 of winning every statewide office.
We have reporters all over the state and we’ll be posting updates all day and night. Here are a few stories we’re watching:
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- How is voting going? As of Monday, more than a quarter of all ballots, or 26.44%, have been returned, according to the voter data firm Political Data Inc. That’s 3 percentage points higher than the November 2022 midterm election, when 23.34% of ballots were returned a day before Election Day.
- Will contested ballots count? The Trump administration for weeks has been trying to set aside about 20,000 California ballots, alleging that some of them went to noncitizens. The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied the administration’s request to sequester the ballots. That’s a win for California officials who found flaws in the administration’s data and argued the Constitution grants to states the power to oversee elections.
- What are Newsom’s poll watchers up to? Gov. Gavin Newsom will deploy 134 election attorneys to five congressional districts to preempt what the Democrat describes as potential election interference by federal monitors. The attorneys will be in the Sacramento area, the Central Valley, Orange County and San Diego and will stay “as long as necessary,” reported The Sacramento Bee. “We’re not screwing around, nor is (Trump),” said Newsom last week on a late-night show when he announced the plan.
- What’s going on in the East Coast and Midwest?: House Republicans’ narrow lead could flip this election, and it could happen before Californians are done voting. Eighteen races in Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania and other states are considered tossups, and Democrats would need to secure 218 seats to eke out a slim majority. Flipping the Senate would be a taller order, and the party would need to nab four more seats for a majority.
- Will there be a ‘red mirage?’: For close races in almost every major election, early returns show Republicans winning or faring better than expected. Then as more votes are tabulated, Democrats pull ahead. It happens in California too, reports CalMatters’ Ryan Sabalow, like during the June Los Angeles mayoral race. But that so-called red mirage wasn’t because California Democrats were rigging the election, but rather Republicans were turning in their ballots earlier and the state, like usual, took a long time to tally votes. This election might be a little different though, as Democrats have been returning their ballots earlier both in California and in other states.
We’ll be posting live updates all day so come to CalMatters for the latest news.
One more thing, if you haven’t voted — or know someone who is still making up their mind — there’s still time to check out our voter guide.
