2 Incumbent Republican senators win re-election, Democrat claims open Vermont seat

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - A pair of Republican incumbents won re-election to the Senate on Tuesday while a Democrat laid claim to an open seat in the chamber for the US state of Vermont.

Sens. Rand Paul and Tim Scott defeated Democratic challengers in Kentucky and South Carolina respectively, while congressman Peter Welch defeated Republican Gerald Malloy to lay claim to the Senate seat currently held by outgoing Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, according to Associated Press tallies.

The AP's calls are the first of the 2022 midterm elections. In all, 35 Senate seats in the 100-member chamber are being contested this election cycle, as well as all 435 seats in the House of Representatives.

Polls have just begun to close for many states in the US Midwest and East Coast, and closures are set to take effect on a rolling basis across the country.

People are likely to continue voting in their respective states after the official closure time if they get in line before polls are scheduled to shutter, or perhaps if there are significant glitches with voting machines.

High voter turnout could further result in long lines of people waiting to cast ballots at polling stations even after closing time comes and goes.

In the US, states control the running of elections, and each will set its rules and regulations in line with federal law.

Several key races remain neck-and-neck in polls done close to Election Day.

In Pennsylvania, celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz and state Lt. Gov. John Fetterman are locked in a tooth-and-nail fight for an open Senate seat, with an average of polling compiled by the RealClearPolitics website finding Oz ahead by a razor-thin 0.1%.

With such a narrow margin, it is anyone's guess which candidate will emerge victorious.

In a sign of the importance of the race for the Senate's future, three current and former presidents came to the Keystone State over the weekend, including President Joe Biden and former Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, in bids to bolster the candidates in the final days of the campaign.

There are about 10 Senate races across the country that could prove pivotal in determining whether Republicans or Democrats lay claim to the chamber, including in Georgia, where incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock is trailing his Republican opponent, former American football star Herschel Walker, by 0.6%, according to RealClearPolitics.

Results in any number of races are unlikely to be known on Election Day, and tightly watched races such as those in Georgia and Pennsylvania could take days to determine, given how tight they are. Pennsylvania in particular has sought to throw cold water on expectations for a quick result, saying it could take days to tabulate the expected deluge of votes.

Some states also have a significant backlog of absentee or mail-in votes which, depending on the local rules, cannot begin to be counted before Election Day.

While international attention will remain focused on top-line congressional races, further down the ballot, voters will weigh in on a series of state and local campaigns, from governors' races to ballot initiatives such as marijuana legalization, and more mundane but nonetheless important races for local offices.