Ernest Thomas, 68, sat in his Chevy Tahoe and eyed his smartphone Tuesday morning. He was in no rush to cast his ballot at Gonzalez Park, one of many polling places in Compton.

“I voted a long time ago,” he said.

Thomas sent in his absentee ballot weeks ago. Today he was here to just get coffee.

The 2018 midterm elections have consumed and convulsed the nation like few nonpresidential elections have in recent times.

Voters on Tuesday will pour into polling places across the country in elections that give Democrats their first opportunity to claw back into power in the Trump era.

In order to provide the broadest possible access to information, the Los Angeles Times has lifted its online paywall for stories about the elections.

Griselda Sanchez walks to the polls in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles while being serenaded by Mariachi Cuicatlan. The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles (CHIRLA) recruited the musicians to help get out the vote Tuesday. PHOTOS: America goes to the polls

Daniele Washburn of Santa Clarita does not trust Republican Rep. Steve Knight of Palmdale, so she voted to toss him out of Congress and replace him with Democrat Katie Hill.

“Hill, I was not too sure, but I have to vote for somebody, and I can’t stand Trump,” Washburn, 77, said on her way home from a volunteer gig providing clothing to impoverished children. “He says one thing in the morning, another thing at lunch and the opposite at dinner without even thinking. He’s a mean person.”

A retired hospital information technology manager, Washburn is a Democrat who emigrated from France almost a half century ago.

Shivaugn Alves said President Trump wasn’t “the be all, end all” for how she voted this year. But he did play a factor, she said.

“I don’t agree with the way our country is headed with the divisiveness,” said the 37-year-old educator in Modesto. “My vote is a vote for inclusivity for all people, immigrants, LGBTQ, the poor, the rich… for everyone to come together and start unifying our country so that we can build on what we have in common.” 

If Trump can start seeing climate change, immigration and education in a more well-grounded way, she added, she would like to see Congress work with him. But that shouldn’t be the case if he continues down the path of hate-mongering and fear tactics, she said.

Veronica Anderson was among many voters walking to their cars in a nicely filled grass parking lot after voting at Markham Woods Presbyterian Church in Lake Mary, Fla. Several women had children in tow as they left the church, which was both a polling location and a preschool facility on this election day.

Anderson, an attorney, says President Trump and his policies “substantially” influenced her reasons to vote.

“By that, I mean I’m going to get out and vote against him.”

Christy Jindra, a 54-year-old attorney in Fayetteville, Ga., arrived at his polling station feeling a little uneasy about his vote in Georgia’s bitterly divided gubernatorial race between Democrat Stacey Abrams and Republican Brian Kemp.

“I’d probably not vote for Abrams if Donald Trump wasn’t president,” he said. “Quite frankly, the Republicans have got to be slapped down a bit.”

Jindra used to consider himself a conservative, but voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 because he did not think Donald Trump was presidential material.  His opinion has not changed.

Jay Skibbe showed up at the Lake Mary Public Library to support President Trump in all ways. Lake Mary, located in Orlando’s collar county of Seminole, is a city that has 50% Republican registration and where independents slightly outnumber Democrats.

Skibbe was strong in his beliefs.

“Trump is doing a hell of a job,” he said. “The country is rolling economy-wise but the Democrats are going to vote ‘no’ on everything he wants to do. They are nothing but obstructionists. Idiots. Period.”

With the election just around the corner and their party on the defensive, Republicans have railed against Democratic billionaires pouring big money into this year’s midterm. But the top political donors in the closely watched battle for control of Congress are a bipartisan and varied lot.

Of the top dozen individuals or family donors, half fund Democrats, five support Republicans and one, Jeff Bezos, has chosen to put nearly all of his contributions toward nonpartisan groups, according to data compiled by the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics.

The amount of money flowing in this year’s election is jaw-dropping. Driven mostly by seven- and eight-figure amounts from super PACs, spending has already surpassed $5.2 billion, making it the most expensive midterm election in American history.