JACKSON — Three days after Election Day, Mississippi still does not know who will represent it in the U.S. Senate. Democrat Scott Colom holds a narrow lead over Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, and the Associated Press has not called the race.
A lead that keeps moving
Colom, a district attorney, led by just 43 votes in the early hours of Wednesday. Later counts put his lead at 65 votes on Wednesday afternoon and at 1,138 votes on Wednesday evening. By Thursday afternoon, one running tally had the lead at about 1,724 votes, and a later count based on AP figures put it near 1,800. Those numbers come from different counts taken at different times, so no single margin can be reported as final. Independent candidate Ty Pinkins won about 19,900 votes, or 2.1% of the total — far more than the gap between the two leaders.
What is still uncounted
Secretary of State Michael Watson says about 3,600 absentee ballots sent by mail are still outstanding. To be counted, a mail ballot must have been postmarked by Election Day and must arrive within five business days, by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, November 10. An unknown number of affidavit ballots also remain. Those are ballots cast by voters who did not show an accepted photo ID at the polls or whose names did not appear on the voter rolls. They are reviewed and processed during the 10 days counties have to finish their counts, and counties must certify their results by November 13.
No recount law
A finish this close is harder to settle in Mississippi than in most states, because Mississippi law has no recount provision. There is no automatic recount and no process for a candidate to request one. Watson has said so publicly himself. Ben Griffith, an election-law professor at the University of Mississippi, notes that state law also provides no process for contesting a U.S. Senate election in the state legislature. That means any fight over how ballots were handled is likely to play out in court rather than in a recount.
Both camps dig in
Hyde-Smith’s lawyers and the National Republican Senatorial Committee have demanded that all 82 counties separate and preserve the affidavit ballots. Colom’s campaign estimates that 10,000 to 15,000 affidavit ballots are still uncounted, but that figure has not been confirmed independently. Marc Elias, a Democratic lawyer whose firm is leading Colom’s legal effort, posted on X: “Scott Colom is going to be the next Senator from Mississippi.” That is a campaign claim, not a result. No major news organization has declared a winner.
If Colom’s lead holds, he would be the first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate race in Mississippi since John Stennis in 1982. The seat will not change control of the Senate, which Democrats have already won, but the wait goes on. The next firm deadline is Tuesday, when the last mail ballots can arrive.
Sources: Associated Press counts reported by NBC News and ABC News; Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson; Mississippi Free Press.
