October has arrived! From here to November 3 the news cycle will be MIDTERMS, MIDTERMS, MIDTERMS! If your feed wasn’t full of them already, they will be now!

For those just now tuning in, the real last leg of the campaign trail was earlier last month.

Labor Day has a long history of marking the beginning of general election season in election years for most. For those of us in elections, however, it’s more like the final sprint of a long, winding race that started long before even the first primaries.

October is special too, however. You might have noticed a spike in mail or messages from candidates soliciting donations. That’s because the passing of September marks the end of Q3, the last full quarter of campaign finance reporting before Election Day. From here, candidates and committees have until October 15 to submit reports of transactions made since the beginning of the quarter.

This year’s midterms, while not unprecedented, are atypical in that there are two special Senate elections. In Florida, one contest will be held for the former seat of now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and in Ohio, Vice President JD Vance’s seat is the subject of its own election.

Meanwhile, gubernatorial elections are far more common this year than in others. Whereas only 11 governorships were contested in 2024, 36 are up for grabs in 2026, as well as three such contests in US territories.

No matter what state you’re in, however, all 435 US House Districts are subject to election, and voters everywhere will head to the polls!

While the news cycle for some may just now be turning to the final phase of campaigning, America’s election infrastructure never stops working. For months, clerks, directors, supervisors and more have been chipping away tirelessly at every step of preparing for Election Day. From testing tabulators to training poll works, the work leading to this moment has been rigorous.

At times like these, we at Civera hope to show our endless gratitude for the work of election officials whose support has made our journey possible! With as far as we’ve come and as far as we still strive to go, we couldn’t have done it without you, and we hope to be with you every step of the way still ahead.

To our outstanding election administrators across the country, we wish you the best of luck, the strongest of wills, and the smoothest of sailing as you work so diligently to ensure this year’s midterms are safe, secure, free, and fair.

Happy October!