than 40 million ballots were cast through early voting options meaning the outcome had already begun to take shape before election daypolls start to open on the east coast at 6 am 1100 gmt and begin closing 12 hours laterup for grabs are all 435 house seats a third of the 100 senate seats and a slew of statelevel posts four states are also holding referendums on abortion california vermont kentucky and michigansenate races in pennsylvania nevada arizona georgia wisconsin new hampshire and ohio have narrowed to projected photo finishes and any one of them could swing the balance of powerbut final results may not be known until days or in some cases even weeks after election day setting the stage for what promise to be acrimonious challengestrump has already claimed baselessly that swing state pennsylvania rigged the midterms reprising his playbook from the 2020 election which he falsely asserted was stolen by bidenciting growing support for voter conspiracy theories among trump and his republicans as well as their push to curb abortion access biden has warned that democracy and basic rights are at stake on tuesdayrepublicans have countered that a vote for democrats means more soaring inflation and rising violent crime seeking to make the midterms a referendum on the presidentthe outcome will likely determine whether biden who turns 80 this month and is the oldest president ever will seek a second term in 2024 or step aside