Early voting closed in most US states on Sunday, and preliminary figures show turnout in many places has exceeded the level recorded at the midterms four years ago, Göteborgs-Posten reports. Attention now shifts to Tuesday's election day for voters who have not yet cast a ballot. With opinion polls in decisive states sitting inside the margin of error and several Senate contests rated close, Democrats are warning that the numbers could create a false sense of security.
According to Göteborgs-Posten, both the party and its candidates argue that the surveys may make supporters believe the election is already settled. The warnings are intended to push voters in competitive states to turn out rather than assume the outcome is safe.
Why it matters
Control of the House and Senate is at stake, along with 36 governorships being decided at the same time. Göteborgs-Posten reports that the three former Democratic presidents — Bill Clinton, Barack Obama and Joe Biden — have been campaigning not only for congressional candidates but also for the gubernatorial races.
Obama said the governor contests receive nowhere near the national attention or financial support they deserve, and argued that who holds a governorship has a major bearing on how a state develops. Biden went further, according to the paper, saying the governor races help lay the groundwork for the presidential election in two years: Democratic governors running large, important states, he argued, create the conditions for voters there to back a Democratic presidential candidate in 2028.
Göteborgs-Posten notes that the two major parties dominate the contests, leaving candidates from other parties or running as independents with little chance of winning.
A hunt for the undecided
The paper reports an intensive effort to reach voters who have not yet made up their minds. People who describe themselves as independent — neither Democrat nor Republican — are usually estimated at around 33 percent in US election surveys. As election day approaches, that group shrinks, and those described as genuinely independent fall to about 13 percent.
Both parties are not only urging voters to cast ballots but also asking for money, including small donations, to fund campaigns. Göteborgs-Posten reports that their messages heighten the sense of a decisive election in the tightest races and stress that responsibility for the result rests with each individual voter. The former Democratic presidents and the Republican president, Donald Trump, along with Vice President JD Vance, are delivering the same core message, according to the paper.
Economy, Iran and data centres
Voters in this year's election name the economy and the war in Iran as the most important issues, Göteborgs-Posten reports. Petrol and diesel prices have risen sharply, as have grocery prices. Resistance to the construction of large AI data centres is also a factor shaping races in several states, according to the paper.
There is also concern that the elections could be disrupted. More than 30 percent of election workers say they have already faced various forms of pressure and threats during early voting, Göteborgs-Posten reports. Tina Barton, deputy head of the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections, said work has been under way for several years to train poll workers on security matters and to ensure systems function in vulnerable situations. She said there is broad readiness for the elections to run without problems.
The reporting also points to a wider political backdrop: Swedish outlets covering the race describe a president under pressure who hopes to sow distrust around the vote, and speculate about whether the midterms could mark the end of the Trump era. One financial outlet, DI, reports that experts see a stock market opportunity if Trump suffers defeat. Those are characterisations from the cited outlets rather than established outcomes.
What happens next: election day is Tuesday, and the results in the closest Senate and gubernatorial races — and how quickly they are called — will determine whether the warnings about false confidence proved justified.
