CTV.ca News Staff - Democrats won a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in 12 years, but are still two seats away from securing the Senate.

Democratic challengers have captured four of the six Republican-held seats they need to take control of the Senate, winning critical contests in Ohio, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Missouri.
Two races are still undecided: in Virginia and Montana. Democrats lead in both states.

But a final victory could be delayed by a possible recount in Virginia, where Democratic challenger James Webb holds a razor-thin lead over Republican incumbent George Allen. A recount is likely.

Republicans and Democrats both dispatched lawyers to the state to tally uncounted absentee ballots Wednesday, as well as canvass votes counted on Election Day.

"Tonight is a great victory for the American people," said Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who could become the first female House Majority Leader in history, on Tuesday night.

"Today the American people voted for change, and they voted for Democrats to take their country in a new direction. That is exactly what we intend to do.

"The American people voted for a new direction to restore civility and bipartisanship in Washington, D.C. And democrats promise to work together in a bipartisan way for all Americans."

White House officials said Bush will phone Pelosi early Wednesday, and will likely give a press conference on the election results in the afternoon.

In one tight Senate race in Tennessee, Democrat Harold Ford was unable to beat Republican Bob Corker. Ford would have been the first black man elected to the Senate from the South in more than a century.

One of the first Republican senators to be defeated was Rick Santorum, who lost his seat in Pennsylvania to Democrat Bob Casey.

Results also suggested a Democratic win in Ohio, where Rep. Sherrod Brown defeated incumbent Sen. Mike DeWine.

Republicans seem headed for a third Senate loss in Rhode Island, where Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse is leading incumbent Lincoln Chafee.

Meanwhile, Democrat Bob Menendez is another projected winner, beating Republican Tom Kean Jr. in a hotly contested race in New Jersey. Some analysts consider the state one of the key Senate races Democrats need to win in order to secure a majority.

But in one tight race that could still go either way, Republican incumbent George Allen is in a virtual tie with Democrat Jim Webb in Virginia. If the difference is less than one per cent, state law says the loser automatically has the right to ask for a recount.

Analysts had predicted Democrats would regain a majority in the House, with Republicans hurt by a series of scandals and the public's growing unease with the Iraq war.

Polls showed the number one issue for Americans was the Iraq war, reported CTV's Joy Malbon in Washington, while Democrats tried to portray the Midterms as a referendum on the Bush presidency.

In fact, U.S. President George Bush kept out of sight on Tuesday, preferring to wait for election results in the White House.

Up for grabs were 435 House seats, 33 of 100 Senate seats, governorships in 36 states, and thousands of state legislative and local races.

In their bid to control the Senate, Democrats missed one opportunity in Connecticut, where former Democrat Joe Lieberman has kept his seat. Lieberman ran as an independent, although he's said he will vote with Democrats on most issues.

"I'm Joe Lieberman and I approve of this election," he joked during his victory speech.

But the other three projected gains were enough for New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer to rally supporters.

"It's about taking our country back," said Schumer. "It's about changing the course in Iraq."

Among the Democratic wins in the House, Brad Ellsworth defeated John Hostettler in Indiana's 8th District, while John Yarmuth took a seat from Anne Northup in Kentucky's 3rd District.

Republicans also lost House seats in Connecticut and Kentucky, where Nancy Johnson and Anne Northup were defeated after serving long terms in Congress.

According to Renan Levine, a University of Toronto political scientist, the House is a bigger prize for Democrats than the Senate.

"Because the minority tends to have quite a lot of power in the Senate and because there's a Republican president, not a hug impact," Levine told CTV.ca on Tuesday.

For example, overturning a presidential veto requires a two-thirds majority, or about 67 votes in the Senate.

"One of the big impacts, though, by taking over the House, the Democrats will have subpoena power," he said.

Under the U.S. system, Congress is charged with the oversight of the executive branch, i.e., Bush and his cabinet, he said.

"They can hold hearings about policy matters that will embarrass the administration," he said. "We're likely going to hear a lot of hearings about Iraq."

In one of several governorships up for grabs, Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger managed to win a second term in California, securing a comfortable lead over Democrat Phil Angelides.

But Democrats won a governorship in New York, thanks to an easy win by Eliot Spitzer. It's the first time in 12 years the state has had a Democratic governor.

As attorney general, Spitzer gained a reputation for investigating corporate crime and earned the nickname "the Sheriff of Wall Street," according to the Washington Post.

Voting machines

Among the many U.S. voters encountering problems Tuesday was the daughter of former President Bill Clinton.

Officials at a Manhattan polling station couldn't find Chelsea Clinton's name among a list of registered voters, so she had to use an affidavit vote.

But the most significant problems had to do with new electronic voting machines, which caused headaches in hundreds of precincts shortly after polls opened.

Many voters are using electronic voting machines which were brought in to replace older systems, including the infamous punch-card machines which became the centre of the dispute in Florida during the 2000 presidential election.

Programming errors with the new machines and workers unfamiliar with the devices have been reported in Indiana and Ohio, where voting was delayed.

Some voters in Florida have had to use paper ballots after complications with the electronic machines.

In Maryland, some voters cast provisional ballots on scraps of paper after election officials forgot to send out the cards required to activate electronic machines.

A third of Americans are voting on new equipment, with voters having to navigate new registration databases and changing ID rules.

About half of them are using optical-scan systems that ask them to fill in blanks, with ballots then fed into a computer. Thirty-eight percent are casting votes on touch screen machines that have been criticized as susceptible to hackers.

South Dakota rejects abortion ban

In 37 states, voters determined the fate of ballot initiatives, including whether to ban gay marriage, raise the minimum wage, and expand stem cell research.

In South Dakota, voters rejected a state abortion ban. The state has the strictest restrictions on abortion in the country.

Five states approved increases in their minimum wage.

Arizona passed four measures targeting illegal immigrants, including one making English the state's official language.

With files from The Associated Press