When Will Mississippi Be Called? Colom Leads Hyde-Smith by About 1,100 Votes in Uncalled Senate Race

Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race had still not been called as of late Wednesday, Nov. 4, and officials say it could take days more. Democrat Scott Colom held a razor-thin lead over Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in unofficial results, with absentee and affidavit ballots still being checked.

This is a developing story. Results are unofficial and the margin may change as counties finish counting.

Mississippi Senate results so far

As of Wednesday evening, unofficial results reported by WLBT and WXXV showed:

That puts Colom ahead by 1,138 votes, with about 95.6% of the expected vote in, according to WLBT. His lead had been just 65 votes earlier in the day.

When will the Mississippi Senate race be called?

There is no firm date. Officials told WLBT the delay is not a red flag but the result of verifying thousands of remaining ballots.

• Outstanding ballots: The Secretary of State’s office said 70 of 82 counties had uploaded unofficial results, with about 3,600 mail-in absentee ballots outstanding and an unknown number of affidavit ballots, WLBT reported.
• Absentee deadline: WXXV reported election officials have until Nov. 10 to receive eligible absentee ballots and resolve provisional ballot issues.
• Certification: Clerks have 10 days after absentee and affidavit ballots are counted to certify, with a Nov. 13 deadline, WLBT reported. The Secretary of State’s office suggested it might take until next Friday to call the race.

In Hinds County, commissioners began sorting sealed affidavit ballots on Wednesday. “We’re not going to turn a number in till everyone is complete,” District 1 Election Commissioner Kidada Brown told WLBT.

Republican analyst Henry Barbour said the remaining ballots “usually split about the way the vote splits,” adding, “That’s pretty much 50-50, so it could be a lot of ballots, but maybe not a lot of impact.”

Will there be a recount?

Mississippi has no automatic recount law, and candidates cannot simply request one, WXXV reported. Once totals are certified, a recount would require a court order, according to WLBT.

Did Mississippi turn blue?

Not yet, and it may not. The race is uncalled. But the result is already unusually close for Mississippi, where Democrats have not won a Senate race since John Stennis’s last reelection in 1982, WLBT noted. Hyde-Smith won in 2020 by about 10 points, 54.1% to 44.1% over Democrat Mike Espy.

WLBT’s comparison of county results found seven counties Hyde-Smith carried in 2020 now favoring Colom: DeSoto, Forrest, Madison, Lafayette, Grenada, Winston and Yalobusha. DeSoto, outside Memphis, swung the most, from about a 16-point Hyde-Smith win in 2020 to a Colom lead of about 6. Margins in Madison and Lafayette are under 1 point and could flip as counting finishes.

Hyde-Smith still leads in Rankin and Harrison counties, but by much less than in 2020, WLBT reported.

Jackson State University political scientist D’Andra Orey told WLBT his own analysis suggests Pinkins drew more votes from Hyde-Smith than from Colom. Whether the remaining ballots help either candidate, he said, “is going to be dependent on where they actually find votes.”

Who are the candidates?

• Cindy Hyde-Smith, the Republican incumbent, was appointed to the Senate in 2018 and later won a special election, WXXV noted.
• Scott Colom is a prosecutor from northeast Mississippi.
• Ty Pinkins ran as an independent.

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