WASHINGTON — Public campaigning gave way to the privacy of the voting booth today with control of the Senate, the makeup of the House and three dozen governorships at stake.

President Barack Obama, his approval ratings low, was not on the ballot midway through his second term. But even he said his policies were, and Republicans rushed to agree.

“The president’s policies have just flat-out failed,” House Speaker John Boehner said Monday, campaigning for a 13th term in Congress and hoping for two more years as top House leader. He and other Republicans vowed to change Obama’s policies, but have offered little in the way of specifics.

Democrats didn’t so much defend the president as insist they were independent of him.

“There are two people on the ballot tomorrow, me and Scott Brown,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire said as she made the rounds of six campaign stops on the race’s final full day.