League City residents heading to the polls Tuesday, Nov. 3, will cast ballots in one of the most competitive U.S. Senate races in Texas in decades.

Election results are pending. This article will be updated as election officials release vote totals.

The Texas Secretary of State's election results page showed zero percent of polling locations reporting as of Monday, Nov. 2.

Republican Ken Paxton, the state's attorney general, faces Democratic state Rep. James Talarico. Libertarian Ted Brown is also on the ballot, along with several write-in candidates.

What's at stake

The race could help determine which party controls the U.S. Senate for the final two years of President Donald Trump's term, according to Houston Public Media. Republicans hold a 53-47 advantage in the chamber, and Democrats need a net gain of at least four seats to take the majority, PBS reported.

Campaigns and outside groups have spent more than a quarter-billion dollars on advertising in the race, according to CBS Texas.

Polls show a dead heat

Multiple late-October surveys showed the race within the margin of error. An Emerson College Polling/Nexstar Media survey conducted Oct. 17-19 found Talarico at 48% and Paxton at 46% among 1,000 likely voters, with a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

A University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs poll showed similar numbers: Talarico at 48%, Paxton at 46%, with a 2% margin of error. Mark Jones of Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, who coauthored that report, called Talarico's late-campaign performance "the strongest … he's seen from a Texas Democrat in decades," according to Houston Public Media.

A UMass Lowell/YouGov poll fielded Sept. 18-28 found the two candidates tied at 45% each among 850 likely voters.

The Cook Political Report moved the race from Lean Republican to Toss Up on Aug. 20, according to Map the Midterms.

Early voting turnout

More than 4.2 million Texans cast ballots during the first six days of early voting, representing about 22% of the state's 19 million registered voters, Texas Secretary of State Robert Howden announced. Early voting ran from Oct. 19 through Oct. 30.

When polls close

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday. League City is in the Central time zone, so local polls close at 7 p.m. CST. Only El Paso and Hudspeth counties operate on Mountain time, according to The Green Papers.

Voters can find their polling location and other election information at VoteTexas.gov. Official results will be posted at the Texas Secretary of State's election results page as returns come in Tuesday night.