America heads to the polls and more news from the states

Good evening. It’s down to the final hours of the midterm election cycle. While we don’t have any results in tonight’s newsletter, we’ve got updates from across the country, where Election Day appeared to progress smoothly. Tomorrow morning, you’ll get a special edition of States Newsroom’s morning newsletter, Daybreak, full of results and reactions. 

We’ve also got some non-election updates this evening: another Colorado LGBTQ+ anti-discrimination policy debated at the U.S. Supreme Court, a Washington farmworker’s death from bird flu, data center scrutiny in Kentucky and Florida, and more. 

After polls close, we’ll be updating our Election Day live blog throughout the night and sharing the latest on Bluesky and Instagram.

For Ren Pridgeon of North Carolina, working on Election Day is a five-decade tradition. The 72-year-old was serving as a poll worker Tuesday outside of John Chavis Community Center in southeast Raleigh, North Carolina Newsline reports. 

“I have never missed an election,” Pridgeon, 72, said with a broad smile. “I worked my first election when I was 22 years old.”

Pridgeon tells those disinterested in politics that the failure to cast a ballot is the same as giving your vote to a candidate or a policy you dislike.

“I see the importance of it — making people aware of what they’re voting for,” said Pridgeon. “Of course, I don’t tell anyone who to vote for.”

Election Day continued relatively smoothly across the country, despite scattered local administration issues, which will lead to some delayed poll closings and results reporting, including in North Carolina. 

Michigan election officials said late Tuesday they contacted the U.S. Department of Justice after receiving reports that federal election monitors in Dearborn and Flint had questioned poll workers about their training, conduct which state officials said was outside the monitors’ legal authority.

In Utah, officials activated emergency electronic voting for residents in San Juan County after severe flooding over the past several days overwhelmed the rural area in which distances are long and travel has become hazardous. Officials also responded to flooding-related issues in Colorado, New Mexico and Florida. 

In Alaska, which has found itself in the national spotlight with tightly contested races for U.S. Senate and governor, the state’s closest contests may not have an unofficial winner until Nov. 18, when the state will perform a ranked choice tabulation if no candidate has won more than 50% of the votes. 

Because a disproportionate number of Democratic voters have cast ballots in advance of Election Day and some advance votes are counted after Election Day, initial results in Alaska will be more right-leaning than the final result.

At the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday, the Archdiocese of Denver and two Catholic preschools argued that a Colorado anti-discrimination policy improperly limited their involvement in the state’s universal preschool program, Colorado Newsline reports. 

Conservative justices appeared skeptical of the state’s approach to balancing anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ people and religious exemptions.

Attorneys for the schools and the state argued about whether Colorado’s anti-discrimination policies improperly target Catholic schools for their sincerely held beliefs, violating the free exercise clause of the First Amendment, or if Colorado applied the requirement universally with no intention to exclude the schools. 

Several past cases related to LGBTQ+ discrimination in Colorado have made their way to the nation’s highest court, including one in which the justices said a cake shop owner could deny a same-sex couple a wedding cake.

Indiana: Death row inmate Jeffrey Weisheit’s attorneys are asking Republican Gov. Mike Braun to stop Thursday’s execution until the state provides evidence that the drugs it plans to inject are potent, pure and properly stored.

Oregon: Local prosecutors will investigate an October incident in which a masked federal immigration agent appeared to slash the tire of a car belonging to two U.S. citizens who were documenting enforcement activity.

Washington: A Yakima County farmworker died this week of highly pathogenic avian influenza after exposure to an infected animal at a dairy.

Tennessee: A Nashville judge temporarily blocked state officials from denying driver’s licenses and license renewals to immigrants authorized by the federal government to live and work in the United States. 

West Virginia: Many low-income state residents will soon be required to meet two sets of public assistance work requirements — one to keep healthcare and another for food assistance.

North Dakota: A state judge denied Greenpeace’s request for a new trial in the case brought against the organization by the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Kentucky: A state economic incentive board detailed new requirements data center developers would have to meet before receiving a controversial sales tax break.

Florida: The state Public Service Commission unanimously rejected Duke Energy Florida’s proposal to pay data center costs, saying it didn't meet a new law that requires large load customers to bear their full costs of service without shifting them to taxpayers.

Voters in Minnesota brought their “I voted” stickers to the memorial for Alex Pretti in south Minneapolis Tuesday. Pretti was shot and killed by federal agents in January. (Photo by Nicole Neri/Minnesota Reformer)

Take in the scene at polling places from across the country — from DJs performing at the polls in Alaska to a 102-year-old voter casting her ballot in Tennessee — at States Newsroom’s live blog on News From The States. We’ll be posting updates and results throughout the night.

While polls are still open for a few more hours in western states, voters headed to their polling places across the country today mostly without incident. At churches, schools and community centers they rendered their verdict on the direction of the country and those who lead it. 

Election forecasters have favored Democrats to win back the majority in the U.S. House, which would allow them to significantly rein in Trump’s legislative agenda. Analysts have also increasingly predicted Democrats could win control of the U.S. Senate could, which would allow them to block appointments, including a potential U.S. Supreme Court vacancy, States Newsroom's D.C. Bureau reports. 

Even after the polls close, it could take weeks to know the results of some races, and consequently, control of both chambers of Congress, due to each state’s voting laws and processes for counting votes. 

After the 2022 midterms, control of the House was projected for Republicans eight days after Election Day. In 2024, the same projection took nine days.

While much of the national attention on today’s midterm elections has focused on control of Congress, voters across the country will also choose which party controls the levers of state power, Stateline reports. 

Across the states, more than 6,000 legislative seats are up for grabs, leaving the partisan control of numerous chambers hanging in the balance. 

And voters will choose governors in 36 states. Only a dozen of those races are considered competitive by independent analysts, but Democrats have a shot at winning control of a majority of governorships for the first time in 16 years.

Related: New Hampshire Democrats face an uphill battle to win control of state Senate

Elections may come and go in Arkansas, but the campaign bumper stickers, buttons and yard signs can live on even longer.

Want proof? Just step inside Ad Craft of Arkansas.

A visit to the downtown Little Rock business offers a glimpse at how the state’s campaign messages have changed over the years. For nearly seven decades, Ad Craft has been the go-to printer for campaign signs, stickers, shirts and other political swag, Arkansas Advocate reports. 

A sign outside Ad Craft advertises the “Bumper Sticker Hall of Fame,” and the business lives up to that advertising indoors. Ad Craft’s walls are adorned with stickers, buttons and other campaign paraphernalia throughout the state’s history. A 1982 bumper sticker proclaims, “Repeel Frank White” alongside the image of a banana peel, in opposition to the then-Republican governor’s campaign. 

Campaign buttons and bumper stickers may feel like a relic in an increasingly online political era of TikTok videos and dueling social media posts. But Evans said there’s still a demand for traditional campaign messages.

“This state really likes yard signs, especially along the Delta,” Evans said. “It’s a good visual thing. It tells you who’s out there. By the time you get in a voting booth, if you don’t pay any attention, basically you remember whose sign you saw.”