🗳 Dept. of Midterms 2018.

I’ll be keeping this space updated throughout the midterms with the latest polls and live blogs.

  1. Forecasts and Results: New York Times / Real Clear Politics / Five Thirty Eight: House / Senate

  2. Live Blogs: Washington Post / Five Thirty Eight / New York Times / The Guardian / CNN / NBC News / Wall Street Journal / Politico / ABC News

  3. How to watch the midterms: A normal person’s guide to how the midterms will unfold, hour by hour. (Five Thirty Eight / BuzzFeed News / CNN / Bloomberg)

  4. What time do the polls close? The first polls close at 6 p.m. ET with the last closing seven hours later in Alaska. (New York Times / Politico)

  5. Races to watch and how to follow them. (Bloomberg / CNN / ABC News / Politico)

  6. What’s at stake, explained. (Vox)

1/ More than 36 million people voted early this year, almost 10 million more people than during the 2014 midterms. Some experts believe early voting could surpass 40 million people by the time all the ballots are counted. (Politico)

2/ Trump and Jeff Sessions issued baseless warnings about the threat of voter fraud in the midterm elections. There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the U.S. (Washington Post)

3/ Facebook suspended 115 accounts believed to be engaged in “coordinated inauthentic behavior.” Law enforcement believes the accounts may be linked to foreign entities. Almost all the Facebook pages appear to be in French or Russian. (USA Today / Politico)

Notables.

  1. U.S. military personnel will not be “involved in the actual mission of denying people entry to the United States” at the southern border, according to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “There is no plan for US military forces to be involved in the actual mission of denying people entry to the United States,” Gen. Joseph Dunford said. “There is no plan for soldiers to come in contact with immigrants or to reinforce Department of Homeland Security as they’re conducting their mission.” (CNN)

  2. The White House asked the Supreme Court to rule on the future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program before three pending cases at the federal appellate level complete the normal appeals process. DACA is currently accepting renewals but not new applicants. If the program ends, about 700,000 protected individuals could be deported. (NPR)

  3. Motel 6 will pay up to $7.6 million to Hispanic guests after regularly providing guest lists to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Motel 6 also agreed to a two-year consent decree barring it from sharing guest data with immigration authorities absent warrants, subpoenas, or threats of serious crime or harm as part of its preliminary settlement with eight Hispanic plaintiffs. (Reuters)

  4. Cesar Sayoc is scheduled to appear in court in New York today to face charges that he mailed pipe bombs. Prosecutors will ask the judge to hold Sayoc without bail because he is considered dangerous to the public. Sayoc faces nearly 50 years in prison if he is convicted of the five federal charges filed against him in New York. (Associated Press)

  5. Trump: “I would like to have a much softer tone,” but “I have no choice.” Trump blamed the current vitriol in political discourse on the election season, then at a rally later Monday called the Democratic candidate for Ohio governor, a “bad person,” revived his “Pocahontas” insult for Elizabeth Warren, attacked the news media, demanded that security remove protesters, and criticized Dianne Feinstein’s role in Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation hearing. (Reuters)

Last year today: Day 291: Bad conduct.