Voters heading to the polls Tuesday are paying more at the pump than on any Election Day on record. The national average for regular gasoline hit $4.12 a gallon, and diesel reached $6.28, according to GasBuddy. Both are the highest national averages ever recorded on an Election Day.
That is the backdrop as Americans decide who controls Congress. And for many voters, the cost of everyday life, from fuel and groceries to housing, is the issue bringing them out. More than 60 million people had already cast a ballot before polls opened Tuesday.
That is more early votes than in any previous midterm, said Michael McDonald, a University of Florida political science professor who runs the lab's early voting tracker.
"We beat that number which was about 46 million in 2022 by quite a bit," McDonald told Scripps News.
But the early numbers only tell part of the story. Around half of all votes in recent elections have been cast on Election Day itself. In the handful of states reporting Election Day turnout Tuesday morning, McDonald said it looked closer to typical levels.
The early vote, he said, "was very big, but the election day turnout's gonna be more normal."
That means it is still too early to know whether 2026 will match 2018, which McDonald noted had the highest midterm turnout rate since 1914.
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Meanwhile, flash flooding forced officials to move polling places in seven Florida counties, including Brevard, Palm Beach and St. Lucie, under an executive order from Gov. Ron DeSantis. In Oklahoma, a Sunday tornado damaged a community center in Cimarron County, forcing officials to relocate that polling site. Flooding also hit the Four Corners region, impacting polling places in southwestern Colorado.
Christopher Mann, research director at the Center for Election Innovation & Research, said officials prepare for these events.
"Election officials plan for these kinds of events because they happen somewhere in the country," he said. Where governors have declared emergencies, Mann said, some voters can return ballots electronically, a procedure normally limited to military and overseas voters.
The Justice Department says it is sending about a thousand election monitors to 126 jurisdictions in all 50 states, calling it its "largest monitoring effort in history." Monitors watch for potential violations of federal law and are not allowed to interfere with voting.
Mann said federal monitors have been used for decades and must follow the same rules as other observers.
"The federal government has no role in administering elections," he said. "They are not law enforcement officers, they're attorneys or staff in federal agencies, so they shouldn't be an intimidating presence in the polling place."
Beyond the weather, Mann said problems so far have been routine. He pointed to a ballot scanner programming error in Westchester County, New York, where poll workers are collecting paper ballots to be scanned later under bipartisan supervision.
In terms of the content voters are deciding on, pocketbook concerns are showing up on the ballot itself. Voters in about 40 states are deciding 146 statewide measures in the general election, and 46 of them deal with taxes, bonds or state budgets, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Helen Brewer, a senior policy specialist at NCSL, said this year's slate is among the largest in a decade.
"This year, we have really reached, if not started to exceed those high numbers from 2018 and 2016," she said.
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Many measures target housing costs. Some expand property tax exemptions or raise income limits so more households qualify. Wyoming's initiative would exempt half of a primary home's assessed value from property taxes. Others would fund affordable housing, and a California measure would help qualified buyers with mortgage payments.
"This focus on taxes, property tax exemptions, housing costs is a reflection of how prominent the cost of living is as an issue in the US right now to both voters and candidates in this election," Brewer said.
She said ballot measures often mirror the national conversation. This year, several states are voting for the first time on how schools designate sports teams, which Brewer called "another reflection of what has been a hot topic." Election-related measures, including on voter ID, citizenship requirements and redistricting, are also at an all-time high, according to NCSL.