Midterm election results updates: Dems keep control of Senate with Nevada win

The National Association of State Election Directors is urging patience ahead of the midterms, saying officials have been working nonstop to ensure the election is secure.

"State and local election officials have contingency plans in place so voters can have confidence in our elections and that the results will be tabulated accurately," the National Association of State Election Directors said in a statement Monday. "As with any election, it is important to note that operational challenges may arise."

The group says it’s normal for ballots to be counted in the days following the election.

"While the focus on election night is on who won and who lost, election night results are always unofficial. In the days and weeks to come, election officials will count every eligible ballot within the bounds of state laws, including provisional ballots, mail ballots, and ballots cast by military and overseas voters,” the statement said. “This critical process is normal, as it takes time to accurately tabulate millions of ballots. Some races will be close and may require a recount or a recanvass, depending on the state, but every eligible ballot will be counted as cast.”

-ABC News’ Luke Barr

Americans may not know the results of each race on Election Day, or even the following day.

"It takes time to count all legitimate ballots in a legal and orderly manner," President Joe Biden advised last week.

Elections in the U.S. are decentralized, and each state has different systems for regulating races. Some, such as Arizona and Colorado, allow officials to start processing mail-in ballots before Election Day. Others, like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, can’t begin counting these ballots until Election Day.

FiveThirtyEight has created a sliding scale estimating how long it may take each state to count ballots based on when each state reported results in its primary elections earlier this year.

More information can be found here.

Nearly 200 candidates running on Tuesday have rejected President Joe Biden as the legitimate winner of the 2020 election. These candidates have either stated the election was stolen or took action themselves to try to usurp the results.

According to FiveThirtyEight, 60% of Americans will have an election denier on their ballot.

Not all Republicans on the ballot, however, are embracing former President Donald Trump’s lies about the race. A total of 77 have fully accepted the results while another 93 have accepted the outcome, with some reservations.

Read more here about election denialism on the ballot.

Domestic issues like abortion rights and the economy have taken center stage this cycle, but the elections could also have a big impact on foreign policy.

Experts told ABC News that the outcome of the races will drive the U.S. response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as Republicans in Congress have hinted at curbing the steady stream of financial assistance to Ukraine. They also said the elections could also impact efforts to revive the Iran nuclear deal, as Republicans have generally opposed a return to the agreement all along.

"If there is a change in control of Congress, because of how partisan unfortunately a lot of Iran policy has become, there would be more pressure--given that the current administration and many Democrats in general campaigned on resurrecting a deal and engaging with Iran," Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told ABC News. "There certainly will be desire for more scrutiny and oversight."

Read more here.