Midterm elections 2022 results and latest exit polls
GOP Sen. Rand Paul has won re-election
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has won re-election, NBC News projects.
Paul, 59, has served in the Senate since 2011 and currently serves as the ranking member on the Senate Small Business Committee.
If Republicans take control of the Senate, Paul, a former ophthalmologist, is in line to become chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions.
He often clashed with Dr. Anthony Fauci during Senate hearings over the Covid-19 pandemic.
Vote machine glitch roils Arizona’s Maricopa County and fuels false statements
PHOENIX — Technicians were dispatched to polling sites across Arizona’s largest county on Election Day to fix dozens of malfunctioning vote tabulation machines, a widespread issue that frustrated voters and led some GOP politicians and pundits to spread misleading or false information.
While Maricopa County election officials initially categorized the problem as a “hiccup,” it took hours before a solution was identified early Tuesday afternoon. The fallout over the course of the day forced officials to scramble on messaging and push back on claims that sought to question the integrity of the election.
“Everyone is still getting to vote. No one has been disenfranchised,” Bill Gates, chairman of the Maricopa County board of supervisors and a Republican, told reporters in downtown Phoenix following reports of equipment problems Tuesday morning.
“When we test these machines, that’s part of the process. We go through it for every election,” he added. “And in this particular instance, this is something we didn’t anticipate.”
Georgia governor race too early to call
The governor’s race in Georgia, where Republican Gov. Brian Kemp seeks to fend off Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams, is too early to call, according to an NBC News projection.
The 2022 contest is a rematch after Kemp narrowly defeated Abrams in 2018. Abrams at that time accused Kemp, who was Georgia’s secretary of state during the campaign, of voter suppression.
Georgia Senate race between Warnock and Walker too early to call
The competitive Senate race between Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., and Republican challenger Herschel Walker is too early to call, according to NBC News.
Polls in Georgia closed at 7 p.m. ET.
NBC News Exit Poll: Voters — especially Latinos — feel pain from inflation
As gas prices continue to hover around $4 per gallon, a majority of voters report feeling the effects personally. According to the NBC News Exit Poll, 65% of voters nationwide said gas prices have been a financial hardship for them recently.
When asked more broadly about inflation, a large share of voters (59%) said it caused them or their families a moderate hardship, and an additional 20% said it caused a severe hardship. About 1 in 5 voters said that inflation caused them and their family no hardship at all.
Independents were twice as likely as Democratic voters (22% vs. 11%) to say inflation caused them a severe hardship, while Republicans were even more likely to say this (27%).
Latino voters were more likely than white or Black voters to say that…
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