The race between Republican incumbent U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democratic challenger Scott Colom remains too close to call nearly a week after the Nov. 3 midterms.
Mississippians turned out in droves last Tuesday, with some precincts reporting record midterm turnout. Since then, more than 953,000 ballots have been counted, representing roughly 97% of the total vote, while thousands of affidavit and mailed absentee ballots remain outstanding.
As of 10 a.m. Monday, Associated Press results showed Colom holding a nearly 2,500-vote lead over Hyde-Smith, receiving 49.1% of the vote compared to Hyde-Smith’s 48.8%. Independent candidate Ty Pinkins had garnered approximately 2%.
The numbers are slowly but surely moving six days after the polls closed. Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson said Monday morning that his office has received unofficial results from 75 of the state’s 82 counties.
“The reason why they’re unofficial is because they’ve got 10 days to certify their results, but as they start counting and they start adding up their numbers, they’ll start uploading their unofficial [results] and, eventually, by Thursday, you’ll see that unofficial change to official to make sure they’ve got everything correct,” Watson said on Mornings with Richard Cross.
Watson noted that 12,767 affidavit ballots have been processed, with around 77% of them being accepted. That adds approximately 9,831 votes to the overall tally.
Affidavit ballots are cast by voters whose eligibility cannot be immediately verified at the polling place. This can happen if a voter’s name does not appear on the precinct’s registration list, they vote in the wrong precinct, or they do not bring an acceptable photo ID to the polls.
These ballots are set aside while election officials review the voter’s eligibility before deciding whether to count them. Voters who cast an affidavit ballot because they lacked an acceptable photo ID must present one at their county clerk’s office by Tuesday. All other affidavit ballot verification issues are handled by the state’s Election Commission.
Watson estimated that roughly 8,000 affidavit and 2,800 absentee mail-in ballots remain to be counted. Mailed ballots must be received within five business days of Election Day, which is Tuesday.
“We’ve got about 12,767 affidavits processed already. The counties, again, have until Thursday to finish what’s out there,” Watson explained. “We do not know that [total] number. If you called each county, you could get the number, but until that hits the statewide system, we don’t know that exact number.”
Hyde-Smith, the state’s former agriculture commissioner, is seeking her second full term in the Senate. She was appointed to the position in April 2018 and won a special general election that fall by more than seven percentage points to serve the remainder of the term. She won reelection in 2020 by a 10-point margin.
However, questions surrounding Hyde-Smith’s effectiveness in Congress appear to have carried over to the ballot box this year, with the race shaping up to be the closest of her Senate career. Mississippi voters did not rebuke all Republican candidates, as seen in some other states, easily returning incumbent U.S. Reps. Trent Kelly, Michael Guest, and Mike Ezell to office.
Colom, a Columbus-based district attorney whose appointment to a federal judgeship was blocked by Hyde-Smith in 2023, is seeking to become the first Democrat elected to represent Mississippi in the U.S. Senate since 1982. Coincidentally, that is also the same year Colom was born.
The race between Hyde-Smith and Colom is expected to be called by Friday at the latest.