WASHINGTON, Nov. 4 (Xinhua) -- U.S. voters across the country cast their ballots in midterm elections on Tuesday, amid widespread frustrations over the current political apparatus that many view as being incapable of addressing key challenges facing the country.
At polling stations, voters are expressing a strong anti- incumbent mood that may result in Republicans' control of the Senate, which will deal a huge blow to President Barack Obama and cast a shadow over his last two years in the White House.
Kathy Goodman, who voted in eastern state of Maryland, told Xinhua that American voters need to "send a message to the government that things are just not good right now."
"I think it's more important than ever for people to speak up and say 'This isn't right'," she said outside a polling station in Montgomery County. "This is definitely not the country I grow up and I am very discouraged with the way things are right now."
Goodman's sentiment was echoed by many voters on site, including Linda Winson, who used the vote to voice her demand for change.
"Things need to be changed. I think it's time for new blood," Winson said.
According to a NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey released Monday, a vast majority of Americans said Obama needs to change the way he is leading the country.
The survey showed that 47 percent of Democrats said the president needs to substantially alter how he approaches his job. Two-thirds of the registered voters surveyed said they think Obama should undertake either "a great deal of change" or "quite a bit of change" to his leadership style. Nearly a quarter respondents called for "just some change," with just 8 percent saying "not that much change" was necessary.
A quarter of those surveyed who want Republicans to control Congress said their vote is an explicit protest to the president's job performance -- an increase of 10 percentage points from the 2010 midterms.
Midterm elections serve as a message voters send to Obama about whether or not they approve his current policies, said Aleksandr Grigoryev, a Maryland voter who became a U.S. citizen 10 years ago. "Obama will have huge problems with his agenda if he faces a Republican House and Senate."
Republican supporters have blamed the Obama administration for lagged economy recovery, scares over Ebola, low effect in fight against the Islamic State, as well as unsmooth healthcare and immigration reforms. Obama and many Democratic candidates argue that their measures to deal with the domestic issues and foreign affairs are effective and efficient.
Analysts said in this year's midterm elections no single issue has emerged to define and unify the campaigns.
"A whole host of issues have proven relevant and are playing out differently across the country," wrote political expert John Hudak on the website of the Brookings Institute, a U.S. think tank.
The midterm elections will make all 435 House seats and 33 of the 100 Senate seats at stake.
In the Senate, the Democrats currently hold 53 seats, and can call on support from two independent members with Democratic affiliation, while 45 seats are occupied by the Republicans.
In the 435-seat House, the Democrats control 200 seats, while the Republicans hold 233. The remaining two seats are independent.
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