One week after Election Day, Mississippi is still counting votes as Democrat challenger Scott Colom clings to a narrow lead over incumbent Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson said Monday evening that there were still thousands of outstanding absentee mail ballots that could still be accepted by election officials by the end of Tuesday. Colom currently leads Hyde-Smith by about 2,536 votes as Watson noted there were about 2,578 outstanding absentee-by-mail ballots.
The ballots can be counted for up to five business days if postmarked by Election Day. Around 1,000 mail-in ballots have already been received since the polls closed. Watson noted that 75 of the state’s 82 counties had submitted unofficial results to the state portal while one county had uploaded their official results ahead of the November 13 deadline.
“Some have asked what it means when you see ‘unofficial results’? Those counties are still working through the process, so after each round of processing more votes their totals increase,” Watson said.
He also noted that election officials across the state had processed 15,547 affidavit ballots, with a roughly 76% acceptance rate. Counties have until November 13 to finish processing any provisional ballot.
An affidavit ballot in Mississippi is cast if the voter’s name is not in the poll book, an address has changed, the voter does not have an ID, or the voter has previously been marked as having voted by mail. The acceptance rate for affidavit ballots in the last two election cycles was between 70-75%.
Colom’s campaign manager Gerard Henderson said Monday they were confident that the Democrat would prevail when all the counting was completed.
“We’re confident that once every lawful vote is counted, he’ll be Mississippi’s next U.S. senator,” he said. “Thank you to everyone who got us here and believes Mississippi Matters!”
Hyde-Smith, who said last week she was confident she would win, told reporters on Capitol Hill Monday that “they are counting votes,” when asked about the race, before saying, “I don’t do hallway interviews.” Fellow Mississippi Republican Senator Roger Wicker said that Hyde-Smith still “has a chance.”
The Senate race in deep-red Mississippi shocked Republicans and Democrats alike as a massive blue wave surged across the country last week, flipping once safe Republican Senate seats in Kansas, South Carolina, and Texas.
