Midterm elections live updates: Judge orders DOJ to halt threats to election workers

Ranked choice voting (RCV) will be used in the congressional and state races in Maine and Alaska again this year. People in those states will have the opportunity to have their ballot count toward the person with the majority of votes, even if they strongly prefer a third party candidate.

Under RCV rules, voters rank their candidates in order of preference, first, second third, etc. If no candidate gets a majority of No. 1 rankings, votes are transferred from the candidate with the least top rankings to the other candidates based on who was ranked second, third and so on.

Read more about how RCV works -- and see an animated graphic explaining it, too.

Republican Sen. Ted Cruz issued a stark warning for his fellow Republicans during his latest episode of his podcast "Verdict," which dropped Friday.

"We could lose Texas. And by the way, not just the Senate race, we could lose every single statewide race in Texas. That's how close these numbers are," Cruz said.

The senator, who had one of the closest Senate elections in Texas history when he beat Democratic candidate Beto O'Rourke by 2.6% in 2018, said that he has "examined a lot of numbers," when it comes to the latest polling.

"The Democrats are massively out-turning out the Republicans," he said.

-ABC News' Diana Paulsen

Vice President JD Vance will travel to Swanton, Ohio, on Monday for a campaign rally -- one day before Tuesday's high-stakes midterm elections.

Swanton is outside of Toledo, Ohio, and lies within both Lucas County (which leans Democrat) and Fulton County (which leans heavily Republican).

Swanton is part of Ohio's highly competitive 9^th Congressional District, which ABC News ratings shifted from toss-up to leaning Democratic on Friday.

Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, who represents the 9th District, has been a top target of Republicans for several cycles. Her district was redrawn from one Trump won by 7 points in 2024 to one he would have won by 11 points.

Kaptur faces a rematch with Republican state Rep. Derrick Merrin, who she defeated by just 2,382 votes in 2024 on the same ballot as the president.

Monday's will be Vance's third visit to the state since Labor Day weekend and the sixth visit by either President Donald Trump or Vance to the state since Labor Day weekend. The vice president was born and raised in Ohio.

-ABC News' Hannah Demissie and Diana Paulsen

Alaska Gov. Dunleavy on Thursday raised the prospect of delaying or blocking certification of election results that would make Democrat Mary Peltola the state's next U.S. senator, telling NewsNation that a certification could be "stopped of changed" if the investigation discovers wrongdoing.

Legal experts who spoke with ABC News acknowledge that the governor could potentially attempt this, but that there is no precedent for it nor sound legal basis for such an intervention.

Alaska courts evaluated the dispute over Dan J. Sullivan's candidacy and found nothing illegal about his bid to be on the ballot -- even if it was not entirely in "good faith" or an attempt to "confuse and mislead" as the Trump administration and Republicans contend. And as unseemly as it may be, it's not a crime to ballot stack nor to encourage voters to support one candidate to attempt draw support from an opponent.

It's also not permissible -- as both the Alaska Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court have ruled -- to impose new qualifications for U.S. Senate not otherwise listed in the Constitution.

Procedurally, under Alaska state law, it's not clear that the governor has any direct role in election certification. Also, the state is also a "shall certify" jurisdiction, giving officials no discretion in evaluating ballot tabulations, election law experts said.

-ABC News' Devin Dwyer