OREANDA-NEWS Voting in the midterms began in the northeastern United States. The first polling stations opened at 05:00 (13:00 GMT) in Vermont, in New York the voting will begin an hour later, and it will end with the closure of the polling stations in Hawaii at 18:00 local time (07: 00 GMT on November, 7). The first preliminary results of voting in the States in the North-East of the United States are expected around 02: 00 GMT on November, 7.

According to NBC, more than 30 million Americans have already voted ahead of schedule, and a record number of voters - more than 100 million, that is the same number as in the presidential elections of 1986 and 2000-can take part in the voting.

The main intrigue of the current elections is whether the US Democratic party will be able to seize control of the house of representatives of the Congress from the Republicans. Now the ratio of Republicans and Democrats in it is 236 against 193, six more seats are vacant. In order to gain control of The house of representatives, Democrats need to win at least another 23 mandates.

According to the results of the latest polls, given on the portal Real Clear Politics, Democrats can count on success in 202 constituencies, Republicans - in 194. In the remaining 39 districts, experts do not predict the outcome of the elections.

In the Senate, the Republicans now have a slight advantage: 51 votes against 47 Democrats and two independent senators. Polls on the eve of voting day showed that following the election, the Republicans will retain 50 seats in the Senate, and the Democrats will receive 44 seats. The fate of six more places analysts do not undertake to predict.

Internet portal Ballotpedia, collecting statistics on the election campaigns over the past hundred years, noted that since the 1930s, the party that won the presidential election in the United States, has consistently lost an average of 23 mandates in the midterm elections. The largest losses - 97 seats in the house of representatives and 13 seats in the Senate - the Republicans suffered in 1932 under President Herbert Hoover, and the Democrats lost 63 mandate two years after the arrival of Barack Obama in the White house.