US midterms LIVE: Election day voting kicks off; Trump slashes aid to Israel; Man charged with mailing white powder

Well, we have our first election scandal.

Vote-counting machines in Westchester County, New York, have been unable to accept paper ballots, meaning they have been gathered in monitored sacks to await counting.

It’s affected about 250,000 voters, according to county executive Ken Jenkins - though, of course, the votes will still be counted and accepted.

Republican Mike Lawler is in a tight race to keep the seat, and so, of course, claims of election theft were immediate, though no proof was offered.

“Democrats are already trying to steal the election in New York today,” far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer posted on X.

Katie Miller, a former Trump administration official and wife of White House advisor Stephen Miller, said in her own post, “This is how the left steals elections”.

Lawler, however, and his Democrat opponent Cait Conley, have both expressed confidence in the electoral process.

“Every ballot will be counted, and everybody should be rest assured that their vote will count,” Lawler said.

A former senior advisor to Donald Trump says it’s “a new day for MAGA” and predicted the Democrats will take both the House and the Senate in today’s race.

“I went to vote this morning, and so many voters were talking about how they had originally voted for Donald Trump,” Omarosa Manigault Newman told Today from Jacksonville, Florida - a Trump stronghold.

“And now they’ve changed to vote against all of the ticket that has been supporting him.“

She said cost of living and corruption were the issues driving voters in the midterms.

“I think that Donald Trump is going to see that his party is not only going to lose control of the House, but they will also lose control of the Senate,” she said.

And she warned “a frustrated Trump is a dangerous Trump”.

“After 17 years of working very closely with Donald Trump, I can tell you that he does not do well with defeat, but he also doesn’t like to feel powerless,” she said.

“And for the first time in his presidency, Donald Trump will feel quite powerless.”

Benjamin Netanyahu’s chief rival for the prime ministership has responded to Trump’s last-minute declaration of an imminent end to US aid to Israel.

“Israel’s special relationship with the United States is a key component in its national security,” Gadi Eisenkot said on X.

“The fact that the security establishment, along with Israeli citizens, is learning about a change in the strategic relationship framework through the media highlights just how much Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct poses a genuine danger.

“We can no longer rely on him and must replace him.

“Once again, Israel’s Prime Minister is unable to look Israeli citizens in the eye and tell the truth.

“Netanyahu must provide answers to Israeli citizens, tonight.“

Netanyahu has not responded to Trump’s statement, but said before Israel’s election last week that the US would not keep up current levels of aid forever.

Eisenkot and Netanyahu are both seeking to form a coalition government after the election delivered neither the government nor opposition bloc a majority vote.

Trump has lashed out at news coverage of his Reflecting Pool address yesterday, claiming it was wrong to clarify it as a final midterms campaign speech.

The US president spoke to reporters poolside the day after a whirlwind trip to Iowa and Kansas, saying a long and costly renovation was finally complete.

He reiterated false claims about vandals damaging the pool, and spoke about his renovation projects - an issue that doesn’t resonate with many US voters grappling with a cost of living crisis.

He also joked that he was preparing to name the Reflecting Pool, currently named for Abraham Lincoln, after himself.

In a pair of posts early this morning, he lashed out at the Daily Mail and Democrat Congressman Ted Lieu for their responses to his speech, in particular for their focus on his “joke” about renaming the pool.

“Ted Lieu knows that I said it in a jocular manner, and added, immediately after, ‘Don’t worry, I’m only joking’,” Trump wrote in one post.

“All of the gathered Reporters laughed. But ‘Lightweight’ Lieu, his new moniker, didn’t add the line that I’m only joking because he is a FRAUD.“

The Daily Mail, meanwhile, not only copped it for their reportage about his name-change jibe, but also their characterisation of it as his “final mid-terms speech” in a headline.

“My Final Midterms Speech was the day before in lowa and Kansas, where we had 50,000 people. This just shows you how FAKE the News is,” Trump wrote.

There’s a few big ticket races that will attract a large amount of attention.

The marquee race is the Texas Senate election, where James Talarico has a strong chance of becoming the first Democrat in a generation to win. His opponent Ken Paxton was endorsed by Trump in spite of his many flaws.

Democrats will be hoping to defeat Susan Collins, a Republican senator who has defied the trends in Maine for 30 years.

Republicans see their best pick-up opportunity in Michigan, where progressive Abdul El-Sayed is underperforming other Democrats in the state. El-Sayed would be the first Muslim in the Senate.

Democrats are also eyeing the Senate race in Kansas, where they have not won since 1932. Their candidate Adam Hamilton leads the largest church in the state.

Federal authorities have charged an Oklahoma man with sending hundreds of letters containing non-hazardous white powder to public officials ahead of the 2024 and 2026 elections.

The powders turned out to be yeast or flour, though not all letters have been fully tested, the FBI said in a court filing made public on Tuesday (early Wednesday AEDT).

Robin Martin is charged with conveying a hoax and mailing threatening communications.

He is expected to make his initial court appearance Tuesday afternoon (Wednesday morning AEDT) in Oklahoma City. Online records do not list an attorney to comment on his behalf.

The first polls close at 9am Wednesday AEDT, and the first results will come in soon after. 

But because of different closing times and timezones, the results will be staggered throughout Wednesday morning and afternoon Australian time.

A lot of people will be drawing a lot of conclusions from the first ballots to come in.

But that's a trap people often fall into.

Counties count their ballots in different ways. Some will count their election day votes first, followed by postal and early votes.

In those counties, it will initially look like Republicans are having a great night. 

In counties that do the opposite, it will look like Democrats will be winning big.

But even though results shift as they come in, it's important to remember that we are watching a jigsaw puzzle getting solved, rather than a horse race.

The result is set in stone once voting ends. We are just watching the picture take shape.

Trump has declared the US will cut US4billion(5.7 billion) in aid to Israel, arguing the United States’ closest ally in the Middle East doesn’t need it.

“You can consider it barter. You can consider military aid or cash,” Trump told Fox News Channel in a phone call for the midterms

“Look, we give them $4 billion of things and money, and they don’t need it.

Coming on election day the announcement was always going to look political but Trump himself admitted the aid had become a talking point used by his domestic opponents.

“The left uses the $4 billion payment — that everybody knows about, it’s no secret — as a signal of unfairness,” Trump said.

“And we can’t allow that to happen. I don’t like that, because it’s too easy. It’s almost too easy a target. And Bibi and I have been talking, and we’ve agreed. He was very understanding of it.”

There was no immediate comment from Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office but Yair Golan, a leader in the opposition bloc, said it would deal a “severe blow to Israel’s security”.

The United States has sent tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Israel over the last few years.

Republican focus on in-person voting on election day may come back to haunt them, looking at the weather forecast.

A broad swathe of middle America is set for a drenching, including in the key states of Ohio, Kansas and Texas.

With voting not compulsory, potential voters may peer out the window and decide they aren't keen to get drenched waiting in line.

Meaning Democrats may already have an edge based purely on their focus on postal ballots and early votes.

It’s just past 9am on Tuesday on the east coast (1am Wednesday AEDT) meaning polling has opened across most of the country.

California, Alaska and Washington state are among those opening in the next couple of hours with Hawaiians the last to get the chance to start voting at 12pm ET (4am AEDT).

A few seats in California will be critical to the Democrats securing the House while Alaska is shaping up as a high-profile contest in the Senate.

That’s partly because Democratic candidate Mary Peltola has a real chance at flipping the state and partly because there are two candidates called Dan Sullivan – one who is the

incumbent and another who’s been accused of running as a “spoiler” to attract accidental votes.

Donald Trump has called for Peltola to be prosecuted over reports her campaign talked the new Sullivan into running.

She has denied any role in the alleged chicanery and sought to distance herself from a New York Times article that linked a group backing her to a Democratic operative trying to recruit decoy candidates.