First Thing: US goes to polls in vote that will define the last years of Trump’s presidency

Democrats are hoping to seize control in the capitol and rein in the president’s power. Plus, a peacock that loves admiring itself in the mirror a little too much

Good morning. Americans are heading to the polls today in US midterm elections widely seen as a referendum on Donald Trump’s second presidency and a chance for opponents to rein in his power. The party holding the White House typically loses congressional seats at midterm elections and Democrats are hoping the president’s nose-diving popularity can be exploited.

Meanwhile, the US Department of Justice in California has charged six more people with alleged voter fraud crimes, an escalation of the administration’s campaign against election integrity. However, in a blow to Trump, the supreme court has ruled against attempts to force California election officials to segregate and not count ballots from people the justice department claims are non-citizens.

Where have our reporters been covering the crucial midterm races? We have a dispatch from Shrai Popat in New Hampshire, where Republicans were hoping to flip a Senate seat but now worry Trump may be dragging them down, and David Smith has been in Austin, where James Talarico is making an extraordinary bid to break the Texas Democrats’ losing streak. Lauren Gambino has been in Los Angeles, casting her eye over Xavier Becerra’s California shoo-in to be governer, while Joseph Gedeon offers this analysis from Detroit of how Israel is at the heart of Haley Stevens’s extraordinary reversal to back Abdul El-Sayed’s Republican opponent in Michigan.

Where can you find the Guardian’s election coverage? This explainer has everything you need to know about how winners are called, how states count ballots and Trump’s election denialism. We also have an hour-by-hour rundown of when polls close around the US, and this valuable guide to the candidates and races that will decide the elections.

We will be live blogging the election and results round-the-clock. You can join my colleagues on the live blog here.