Americans on Tuesday started to vote in the critical midterm elections, with Donald Trump's presidency facing its first major voter test two years after he was elected. The midterm election sees the control of the US Congress at stake, with the opposition Democrats tipped to win the House of Representatives while the Republicans are likely to retain the Senate.
All 435 seats in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the US Congress, are at stake, while 35 seats in the 100-member Senate are also up for grabs. 36 governor's posts and seats in state legislatures across the country will also be decided in the vote.
Incidents of violence in the weeks leading up to the midterm polls may play a key role in the election. The campaign's final weeks were marred by the worst anti-Semitic attack in modern US history, which left 11 dead in a Pittsburgh synagogue. Days earlier, a fanatical Trump supporter was arrested after a frantic manhunt on charges of mailing pipe bombs to prominent opponents of Donald Trump, including former US President Barack Obama and Donald Trump's main rival in the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Trump. The #MeToo movement will also play a role in voter sentiment, with Trump having repeatedly defended Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault.
Immigration and health care are other key factors for the midterm elections.
