Control of the US Senate hinges three hard-fought states where winners have yet to be declared: Arizona, Georgia and Nevada. It will probably be several days or even weeks before the final results are declared in these races.
Democrats would need to prevail in two of the three contests to maintain their 50 seats in the 100-seat chamber, which gives them an edge as vice-president Kamala Harris casts a tiebreaking vote.
In Arizona, Democrat Mark Kelly currently holds a five-point lead over Republican Blake Masters with 68 per cent of the vote counted. But that margin is expected to narrow as outstanding votes from election day are expected heavily favour Republican candidates.
Republican Kari Lake has just around 12,000 votes separating her from Democratic opponent Katie Hobbs in the state’s gubernatorial race with many votes still left to count.
Maricopa County, which represents around 60 per cent of all votes in Arizona, will not release additional batches of results until Wednesday evening. If vote margins in any of the Arizona races are less than 0.5 per cent, a new state law would trigger an immediate recount, which could add weeks to the process.
In Georgia, Democrat Raphael Warnock holds a one-point lead over Republican Herschel Walker with nearly all votes reported. However, Georgia requires a strict majority to win, which neither candidate is likely to achieve as a third-party Libertarian candidate, Chase Oliver, has siphoned 2 per cent of the vote in the contest. Warnock currently has 49.4 per cent of the vote.
The race looks likely to head to a runoff between Warnock and Walker, which would be held on December 6.
And in Nevada, Republican Adam Laxalt leads Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto by three points with 75 per cent of the votes reported. But there are tens of thousands of mail ballots left to count in Clark County, the largest in the state, and these are expected to benefit Cortez Masto.
It will probably take at least several days for Nevada election officials to release additional results from mail ballots across the state, which can be counted if they arrive before November 12.
Senate races have also not yet been declared by the Associated Press in Wisconsin and Alaska. However, Republican incumbent Ron Johnson leads Democratic challenger Mandela Barnes in Wisconsin by two points with 95 per cent of the vote in.
And in Alaska, which uses ranked-choice voting, the race is currently close between two Republicans, Kelly Tshibaka and incumbent Lisa Murkowski. A winner may not be declared there until late this month.