But if Republicans succeed in the midterm elections to narrowly strip Democrats of majority control in the House of Representatives, it could be resolved within the next few days as ballots are processed in 11 states. Republicans are expected to win 221 seats in the House, three more than the 218 needed for a majority, while Democrats look set to win 214 seats, according to NBC News. This estimate has a margin of error of seven seats. And election officials are still counting ballots in at least 31 races. That final seat tally could be extended, however, if one or more of the House races is so close that it triggers a recount. As of Thursday, two days after polls closed across the nation, three Senate seats still had no winners projected by NBC News. All three of those seats, in Arizona, Georgia and Nevada, are currently held by Democrats. The outcome of these races will determine whether Democrats retain the smallest possible majority in the Senate, with the possibility of slightly increasing the majority. While the results of Senate races in Arizona and Nevada could be known by next week, Georgia is headed for a special runoff election on Dec. 6 because none of the major party candidates garnered more than 50 percent. of votes. Currently, there are 48 Democratic senators and two independents serving in the caucus, compared to 50 Republican senators who make up the rest of the House. Democrats hold the majority there since Vice President Kamala Harris has the power to sever ties as Senate president. To retain that control from January, Democrats must win at least two of the three yet-to-be-called elections. But the party got some breathing room after Pennsylvania Democratic Lt. Gov. John Fetterman defeated GOP candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz for the Senate seat vacated by Republican Sen. Pat Toomey, who is retiring. “Like all of you, I’m just watching and waiting for them to finish counting the votes,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, told reporters Thursday. McConnell is favored to become majority leader, again, if Republicans win at least two of the remaining Senate races In Arizona, incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly had 51.4% of the vote Thursday, compared to 46.4% for his Republican challenger Blake Masters, who trailed him by more than 95,000 votes. NBC News reported that 76 percent of expected votes were in Arizona as of Thursday afternoon, with 670,000 ballots remaining. Arizona’s count tends to be slower than other states because of the need to verify the signatures of voters who cast so-called early ballots on Election Day. About 290,000 early ballots, which could have been turned in before Tuesday, were submitted that day — an increase of 115,000 over the number of ballots that appeared that day in 2020. The results of several tens of thousands of early ballots that were hand-delivered to polling places in Maricopa County on Tuesday are expected to be released Thursday night. In Nevada, Republican challenger Adam Laxalt led Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, 49.4 percent to 47.6 percent. NBC estimated that 84% of the expected votes had been counted, with 165,713 ballots remaining. The Nevada race may take several days to resolve. Most of the votes were cast by mail, and ballots sealed after Election Day can be counted if they arrive by 5 p.m. PT Saturday, Nevada’s Clark County, which is the nation’s 11th largest county by population, in a statement Thursday pushed back on claims by former President Donald Trump that called the vote-counting process into question. “We have heard his outrageous claims, but he clearly remains misinformed about the law and our election procedures that ensure the integrity of elections in Clark County,” the county said. “First, we couldn’t speed up the process even if we wanted to.” The county pointed out that by law it must “verify every signature on every mail-in ballot envelope and if it doesn’t match what’s on our records, we’re required by law to give that voter by 5pm on Monday, November 14th.” to heal their signature.” “In addition, there are provisional ballots to be processed and we will not be able to complete this work until we receive reports from the Nevada Secretary of State’s Office on Wednesday, November 16. This process ensures that people do not vote twice in Nevada,” stated in the announcement. In Georgia, the Dec. 6 runoff was set after incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, received 49.6 percent of the vote, compared to 48.3 percent for Republican challenger Herschel Walker, a former professional soccer star , while a third candidate gathered just over 2% of the vote. Georgia law requires a runoff of the top two candidates if no one gets more than 50% of the vote. Warnock, who is seeking his first full term, won a runoff for the seat in January 2021, along with Georgia Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. This double victory gave Democrats control of the Senate majority. The largest number of uncalled House seats is in California, where 15 races had yet to be declared as of Thursday afternoon. Nevada has three uncapped House races. Arizona, Colorado, Oregon and Washington state each have two unknown House races. Alaska, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico and New York each have one tribe that hasn’t called home.
