Republican leaders project trust that they will keep control of the US House as several races were decided in their favor on Thursday, while Democrats insist they still see a path to the majority and sought assurances every vote will be counted.

The Republicans won control of US Senate early wednesday

Follow AP’s coverage of the 2024 election at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here are the latest:

Election officials say the key race in Maine must go to a ranked election count

Maine election officials say a pivotal congressional race in the state must move to ranked election counting to determine a winner.

Maine Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, a moderate known for defying his party, led by a slim margin over Republican Austin Theriault on Friday in a race that was still too early to be called days after voting closed . Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said late Thursday that neither candidate had broken 50 percent of the total vote, meaning classified ballots must be counted. The Associated Press did not call the race.

Ranked voting usually comes into play in races with more than two candidates on the ballot. Golden and Theriault were the only candidates in the 2nd Congressional District race, but write-ins were an option, and some voters used it.

Theriault said Thursday that he had requested a recount, although the results had not yet been tabulated at that time. A spokesman for Golden’s campaign said the recount was reasonable, but the ranked count was unnecessary.

“State Rep. Theriault asserted his right to a manual recount, and Congressman Golden agrees. So let’s do it, rather than incur the delay and expense of a ranked-choice runoff,” the campaign said in a statement.

Theriault campaign signaled Friday that it supports the ranked number.

“There is a process in place and we look forward to the process proceeding according to law,” said campaign manager Shawn Roderick.

In ranked-choice voting, the second choices of voters who chose a losing candidate are redistributed to those who ranked higher.

Election night TV ratings are down sharply from 2020 and 2016

The idea of ​​grabbing some popcorn and watching TV to see who has America chosen for its future president was much less attractive this year than in the past.

The Nielsen Company said 42.3 million people watched the election night returns between them Kamala Harris and Donald Trump it pours on Tuesday night. That’s down sharply from the 56.9 million who watched in 2020, when Trump ran against Joe Bidenand the 71.4 million who tuned in on election night in 2016, Nielsen said.

Election night is often known as the Super Bowl for TV news, but this year even the NFL’s conference championship games were watched by more people.

Read more about television audience on election night

Who is Susie Wiles, Donald Trump’s new White House Chief of Staff?

With her selection as President-elect Donald Trump future White House chief of staff, veteran political strategist from Florida Susie Wiles he is moving from a largely behind-the-scenes role as campaign co-chairman to the high-profile position of the president’s closest adviser and counselor.

She has been in political circles for years. But who is Wiles, the agent set to become the first woman to step into the powerful role of White House chief of staff?

Read more about Trump’s new chief of staff, Susie Wiles

An update from the AP Decision Office on the Nevada and Arizona races

Nevada: Late Thursday updates from Nevada’s Clark and Washoe counties did not add many votes to the tally in the races for president and U.S. Senate. The deadline for mail-in ballots to arrive and be counted is Saturday. With potentially tens of thousands of ballots left to be counted in the state’s two largest counties, the races are too early to call.

Arizona: Another day of counting in Arizona added tens of thousands of votes to Thursday’s tally, but hundreds of thousands of ballots remained – including nearly half a million in Maricopa County. Officials there are still working their way through early votes that arrived in October. The races for president and US Senate remain too early to call.

The Party of the Republic of Moldova is picking up several key seats in the Chamber, while the Democrats insist they still have a way to a majority

Republican leaders projected Thursday the confidence they will keep control of the US House as several races were decided in their favor, while Democrats insisted they still saw a path to the majority and sought assurances every vote will be counted.

The GOP won two more places in Pennsylvaniawhich has become a tough battleground of up-and-down Democratic losses. Democrats stepped up another victory in New Yorkdefeating a third Republican incumbent in that state.

Both parties in the House huddled privately on conference calls to assess the political landscape as Congress prepared to return next week to a changed Washingtonwhere much of the MAGA-infused GOP power is within reach of the President-elect Donald Trump.

Review Thursday talks