Two US Senate races from the November 3 midterm elections remain uncalled on Wednesday, more than a week after voters went to the polls, with the contests in Alaska and Mississippi both too close to call and the final tallies still moving. Democrats will usher in the 120th Congress on January 3 with a majority of at least 54 seats in the 100-member Senate, according to the Associated Press, but the size of that majority depends on these two races. The counts in both races are unofficial until certified by state officials.
Mississippi: a deadline day passes
In Mississippi, the contest between Colom and Hyde-Smith remains too close to call, with both candidates holding about 49 percent of the vote and 96 percent of ballots counted, according to the Associated Press. As of 4.30pm Eastern Time on Tuesday, November 10, Colom led Hyde-Smith by 2,607 votes, according to the Associated Press. Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson counted roughly 3,600 mail-in ballots still to be tallied, along with an unknown number of affidavit ballots. Counties have ten days from the election to submit certified results, which is November 13, and the secretary of state must declare the final results by December 3.
The race is the closest Senate contest in Mississippi in decades. Colom, a Democrat, would be the state’s first Democratic senator in nearly four decades and its first elected Black senator since 1875, according to reports. Mississippi has no automatic recount, so the final totals will stand as certified.
Alaska: ranked choice decides it
In Alaska, Democrat Mary Peltola leads incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan by 2,517 votes as of Tuesday, November 10, according to the Associated Press, with nearly a quarter of the votes still uncounted. The race could take days or weeks to be called because of the state’s vast rural distances and its ranked-choice voting system. Alaska requires a candidate to secure more than 50 percent of the vote to win outright, and if neither leading candidate reaches that threshold, second preferences are redistributed.
According to Alaska’s Division of Elections, ranked-choice results will not be published until 15 days after the election, on November 18. A quirk of the race is the presence of a second Dan Sullivan on the ballot — Dan J. Sullivan Jr., a retired schoolteacher widely rumoured to have been a Democratic plant to draw votes from the incumbent. Analysis by the New York Times suggested the other Sullivan’s votes would not help the incumbent much in a second round, and could even put Peltola over 50 percent.
Related reading: Alaska Senate: Peltola Widens Lead by 2,517 Votes and Mississippi Senate: Colom Lead and the November 10 Deadline.
