The starting gun fired on Friday in Henrico, Virginia. Early in-person voting for this year's US midterm elections began there, opening the final six-week stretch before Americans decide who controls Congress on 3 November. A handful of other states — Idaho, Minnesota and South Dakota among them — are also accepting early ballots, with broader early voting set to follow in the coming weeks across the country. The stakes could hardly be higher.

Control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate is on the line, along with governors' races and state legislatures in most states. If Democrats flip Congress, the final two years of President Donald Trump's term would shift dramatically — almost certainly triggering investigations, subpoenas, and a hard brake on his domestic agenda. Election officials say they are confident the process will be accurate and secure, but Trump has continued to attack specific voting methods, pursued federal campaigns to identify non-citizen voters, and pressured officials to hand over sensitive voter data. Anxiety is running deep among the electorate.

Fuel and grocery prices have climbed sharply. A prolonged war in Iran is consuming public attention. Concerns about unchecked artificial intelligence technology are mounting. And Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown has unsettled communities across the country, from Texas to California.