Midterm elections results: This is where the races stand

Polls closed in the US midterms on Tuesday night, but who will be in control of Congress remains unclear.

Control of the Senate now hinges on the outcome in Nevada and Georgia, with the latter due to hold a run-off election on 6 December.

Republicans are inching closer to a 218-seat majority in the House, but the projected number of seats is dimming.

Electoral officials have repeatedly described the delays announcing the final results as normal.

This, they say, is an expected part of US elections due to thin margins between candidates, possible recounts and potentially contested elections. Additionally, rules differ by state for how mail-in ballots are counted, and when.

The House of Representatives is leaning towards the Republicans, according to projections from CBS News, the BBC’s partner in the US.

The Republicans have so far secured 213 seats, compared to 206 for the Democrats. A total of 218 seats are needed to gain a majority in the legislative body, which has 435 members.

Control of the Senate remains a toss-up, with the Democrats and the Republicans both having secured 49 seats. Two races – Nevada and Georgia – have yet to be called.

CBS has projected that Nevada could go to either party.

Alaska – where three candidates were on the ballot in a ranked-choice voting system – has not been called, although CBS has projected it will remain Republican, with two Republicans – incumbent Senator Lisa Murkowski and challenger Kelly Tshibaka – in the lead.

In Georgia, the closely-watched Senate race between incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker will head to a run-off in December.

With a third-party candidate on the ballot in this week’s election, neither candidate secured the 50% of the votes needed for a winner to be declared.

Votes are still being tabulated in Nevada, where thousands of ballots – nearly 60,000 – still needed to be processed.

Republican Adam Laxalt leads Democrat Senator Cortez Masto by 8,988 votes with more than 50,030 mail ballots still to be counted in the state’s most populous county.

Clark County Registrar Joe Gloria said 15,900 mail ballots would be tabulated on Friday. Another 34,130 are being processed and will be counted once they are ready.

Officials hope the remaining ballots will be counted by Saturday night.

US President Joe Biden has said the election was a “good day” for US democracy. An expected “red wave” of resounding Republican victories failed to materialise, despite high inflation and relatively low approval ratings for the Biden administration.