Tuesday is deadline day in the Mississippi Senate race, still uncalled a week after the midterm elections, with Democrat Scott Colom holding a narrow lead over Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith. The Mississippi Senate race is the closest contest left from the 3 November vote, and the ballots that arrive by Tuesday could still decide it.
According to the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office, unofficial results as of 5 p.m. on Monday put Colom on 467,961 votes and Hyde-Smith on 465,425, a lead of 2,536 votes. Seventy-five of the state’s 82 counties had uploaded their unofficial results by then. The race remains too close to call, and the results stay unofficial until counties certify them.
What happens on Tuesday
Tuesday 10 November is the last day for county election offices to receive mail ballots, which must have been postmarked by Election Day. It is also the deadline for affidavit voters who lacked photo ID to show accepted identification to their county circuit clerk. More than 2,800 mail ballots were still outstanding on Monday, according to the Secretary of State, and 12,767 affidavit ballots had been processed, with about 77% accepted.
Counties must send certified results to the Secretary of State by Friday 13 November. Mississippi law has no recount provision, so a finish this close would be settled through certification and, if either side challenges it, the courts rather than an automatic recount.
Why the race matters
Colom, a 43-year-old district attorney from Columbus, would become Mississippi’s first Black US senator since Reconstruction if his lead holds, and the first Democrat elected to the Senate from the state since 1982. Hyde-Smith, the incumbent, has not conceded, and neither candidate has claimed victory.
Lawyers for both parties are preparing for a possible legal battle, according to reports from Mississippi, and ballot monitors have reported obstacles to observing the count. For now, the lead is just that — a lead, not a victory — and Tuesday’s deadlines will show how many of the remaining ballots qualify to be counted.
Sources: Mississippi Secretary of State, Associated Press via NBC News, Mississippi Free Press, Clarion Ledger via Newscord
