Mississippi Senate Race Hangs On Absentee And Provisional Ballots

Mississippi's U.S. Senate race remained unresolved Saturday as thousands of absentee and provisional ballots were still being counted, leaving Democrat Scott Colom and Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith locked in a razor-thin contest that could reshape the state's political history.^[1]

Election officials across Mississippi are continuing to process mail-in absentee ballots and verify affidavit (provisional) votes, with both campaigns closely monitoring counties where the remaining ballots could decide whether the state elects its first Black U.S. senator since Reconstruction.^[1]

The Associated Press has not called the race, in part because Mississippi law allows absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they arrive by Tuesday, five business days after the Nov. 3 election.^[1] Voters who cast affidavit ballots because of missing or mismatched identification have the same Tuesday deadline to present valid ID in person at local election offices, and counties are not required to certify their final tallies until Friday, leaving the contest in limbo into next week.^[1]

The unusually prolonged count caps a high-intensity campaign that drew national attention to a state long considered safe Republican territory, as Colom, a district attorney from Columbus, challenged Hyde-Smith's bid for another full term.^[1] Early returns put Hyde-Smith ahead on election night, but margins tightened as more Democratic-leaning urban and absentee votes were added, prompting both parties to invest legal and political resources in monitoring the late-counted ballots that now stand between Hyde-Smith and a renewed GOP hold on the seat, or a breakthrough win for Colom and Black voters who have never seen one of their own represent Mississippi in the Senate in modern times.^[1]

Mississippi has not sent a Black lawmaker to the U.S. Senate since the Reconstruction era following the Civil War, even though Black residents make up nearly two-fifths of the state's population and form the backbone of its Democratic coalition.^[1] Hyde-Smith, appointed to the seat in 2018 and then elected in a special election, has been a reliable conservative vote and lightning rod for criticism by Democrats, who have highlighted past remarks about "public hangings" and Confederate heritage as they seek to energize turnout and argue that this year's race is a test of whether the state will turn the page on its deepest racial divides.^[1]

Both campaigns are urging patience as the count continues, even as activists and national party officials quietly brace for potential recounts or legal challenges if the margin stays within a few thousand votes once all absentee and affidavit ballots are processed.^[1] For now, Mississippi's Senate seat, and a milestone many Black Mississippians have waited generations to see, will hinge on days of behind-the-scenes work in county election offices rather than the drama of election night.^[1]

1. PBS News