Senate election has entered a decisive stage, with outstanding ballots set to determine the winner of one of the country’s closest midterm races. Democrat Scott Colom led Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by about 2,500 votes at the last count as officials reviewed affidavit ballots and awaited eligible mail votes. Independent candidate Ty Pinkins was sitting on about 2 percent at the time of writing, a potentially significant share in a race so tight.
Among the outstanding ballots are mail-in ballots that can arrive by today, Tuesday November 10, as long as they were postmarked by Election Day. Then, there are the affidavit ballots, which concern voters whose registration or identification could not immediately be confirmed. They may have to wait for local officials to determine whether their choices are included.
Counties must certify their results by Friday November 13. Mississippi’s unusual election laws add uncertainty. Unlike most states, it has no standard statewide procedure automatically producing a recount when the margin falls below a set threshold.
Newsweek emailed the Colom and Hyde-Smith campaigns for comment on Tuesday morning. Victory would give Colom a seat Republicans have controlled for almost four decades and make him the first Black U.S. senator elected by Mississippi since 1875. For Hyde-Smith, who has served since 2018, the uncalled contest has become a fight over the last small share of the electorate rather than another comfortable statewide Republican win.
An affidavit ballot, often called a provisional ballot elsewhere, allows someone to vote when poll workers cannot immediately confirm that the person is eligible to cast a regular ballot at that location. Possible reasons include a missing name in the poll book, an address question, uncertainty about the correct precinct or a problem with photo identification. Local election officials set the ballot aside while they check the voter’s information.
It is accepted only if those officials determine that the legal requirements were met. That process does not reveal which candidate received the vote. Michelle Adcock, the Rankin County circuit clerk, said the county kept accepted ballots unopened until a bipartisan resolution committee could handle them, WLBT reported.
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