US Domestic News Roundup: Special Report-Voting-system firms battle right-wing rage against the machines; Eli Lilly says some staff want to leave Indiana because of abortion ban, Financial Times reports and more

Republicans have picked up momentum in polls and betting markets and analysts see a split government - with the GOP winning the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate - as the likely outcome possibly hindering Democratic President Joe Biden's agenda. U.S. governors races carry high stakes for abortion, elections Competitive governors contests are on the ballot in about a dozen states in Tuesday's U.S. midterm elections, with outcomes that hold far-reaching consequences on issues such as abortion, voting rights and guns.

Following is a summary of current US domestic news briefs.

Special Report-Voting-system firms battle right-wing rage against the machines

Donald Trump's stolen-election falsehoods have thrust America's voting machine suppliers into a national struggle to protect their businesses. Industry leaders Dominion Voting Systems and Election Systems & Software are waging a political and public relations ground war to beat back threats to their state and local government contracts, rooted in bogus conspiracy theories about vote manipulation. Dominion has also turned to the courts, filing eight defamation lawsuits against Trump allies and media outlets including Fox News.

Eli Lilly says some staff want to leave Indiana because of abortion ban, Financial Times reports

Some Eli Lilly and Co employees have requested transfers from the drugmaker's Indiana operations after the U.S. state's lawmakers approved a bill that would ban most abortions there, the Financial Times reported on Sunday. Some staff had asked to relocate outside the state even though an Indiana judge has temporarily halted the ban, the Indiana-based pharmaceutical firm's chief executive David Ricks told the newspaper in an interview.

How long will it take to know who won in U.S. midterm elections?

Here's some advice for anyone following the U.S. midterm elections on Nov. 8: Be ready for a long night and maybe days of waiting before it's clear whether Republicans or President Joe Biden's Democrats will control Congress. All 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are up for grabs, as are 35 U.S. Senate seats and 36 governorships.

U.S. Supreme Court considers making challenges to FTC and SEC easier

The U.S. Supreme Court is set on Monday to hear arguments in two cases that could make it easier to challenge the regulatory power of federal agencies in disputes involving the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The justices are weighing an appeal by Scottsdale, Arizona-based Axon Enterprise Inc after a lower court dismissed the Taser manufacturer's lawsuit contesting the constitutionality of the FTC's structure in a bid to counter an antitrust action related to its acquisition of a rival.

Facing a difficult election, Biden to hold final rally on friendly terrain

One day before midterm elections that could sharply curtail his power in Washington, President Joe Biden will on Monday hold a rally on friendly terrain in an event that underlines the difficult prospects for his Democratic Party. Rather than making a final pitch to voters in a hotly contested swing state, Biden will hold a rally in reliably Democratic Maryland, as his sagging popularity has made him unwelcome in much of the country.

Security threat prompts shutdown of Kari Lake campaign headquarters in Phoenix

The delivery of an envelope containing a suspicious white powder prompted the Arizona gubernatorial campaign of Republican nominee Kari Lake to shut down its Phoenix headquarters two days before the election, the campaign said in a statement on Sunday. The envelope, opened by a member of Lake's staff, was one of two confiscated by law enforcement for analysis in Quantico, Virginia, site of an FBI forensics laboratory, after the incident was reported, according to the statement.

'Kill them': Arizona election workers face midterm threats

Election workers in Arizona's most fiercely contested county faced more than 100 violent threats and intimidating communications in the run-up to Tuesday's midterms, most of them based on election conspiracy theories promoted by former President Donald Trump and his allies. The harassment in Maricopa County included menacing emails and social media posts, threats to circulate personal information online and photographing employees arriving at work, according to nearly 1,600 pages of documents obtained by Reuters through a public records request for security records and correspondence related to threats and harassments against election workers.

Some in White House worry abortion message bungled before midterms

Some senior White House officials have been second-guessing their messaging to voters around abortion in recent weeks, sources familiar with the matter said, as forecasts turned in Republicans' favor in the run up to the midterm elections. Many Democrats are no longer optimistic about retaining one or both houses of Congress in Tuesday's midterms, and some have asked if party leaders and the Joe Biden White House should have spent more time talking about the U.S. economy, and less about women's reproductive rights.

How the U.S. midterms could ripple through the stock market

Investors are turning their focus to Tuesday's U.S. midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress and could spur moves in everything from energy companies to cannabis stocks. Republicans have picked up momentum in polls and betting markets and analysts see a split government - with the GOP winning the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate - as the likely outcome possibly hindering Democratic President Joe Biden's agenda.

U.S. governors races carry high stakes for abortion, elections

Competitive governors contests are on the ballot in about a dozen states in Tuesday's U.S. midterm elections, with outcomes that hold far-reaching consequences on issues such as abortion, voting rights and guns. The high stakes have brought increased money and attention to the state-level races, which typically get overshadowed in midterm elections by the fight for control of Congress.