Control of the U.S. Senate in 2023 could take days, and maybe weeks, to resolve, as votes are still being counted in three states.
Because Democrat John Fetterman flipped the GOP-held Pennsylvania Senate seat, Republicans need to win two of the races for the Democratic-held seats in Arizona, Georgia or Nevada to win Senate control.
Democrats need to prevail in two of those three races to hold their majority.
Georgia could be headed to a run-off election on Dec. 6 if no Senate candidate cracks 50% of the vote in coming days.
With 96% of the votes counted in Georgia as of this morning, incumbent Democrat Sen. Raphael Warnock had 49.2% of the vote, with his Republican challenger Herschel Walker holding 48.7%. Libertarian candidate Chase Oliver had 2.1% of the vote.
In Arizona, a much smaller percentage of the votes were in, which means it could take several days more to resolve the race between Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat, and his Republican challenger, Blake Masters. Kelly had 51.9% of the vote, and Masters had 45.9%.
But just 67% of the ballots had been tabulated in Arizona, where many voters submitted ballots early, before Election Day.
Ballots that were submitted at polling places on Tuesday will take days to have their signatures verified and counted.
In Nevada, Republican challenger Adam Laxalt had 49.9% of the vote, compared with the 47.2% of the vote held by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, the incumbent Democrat.
But just 80% of the vote in the state was in.
And because most of the ballots will be mail-in votes, which have four days to arrive if they are postmarked by Election Day, it could take several days, if not more, to get a final result.
— Dan Manganese