Mississippi Senate Race Heads for Ballot Fight With 2,500-Vote Margin and 20,000 Ballots Disputed
Updated
Updated · BBC.com · Nov 6
Mississippi Senate Race Heads for Ballot Fight With 2,500-Vote Margin and 20,000 Ballots Disputed
3 articles · Updated · BBC.com · Nov 6
Summary
With 97% counted, Democrat Scott Colom leads Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by about 2,500 votes, but both campaigns are preparing legal challenges over ballots that could still decide the race.
At issue are 3,600 absentee-by-mail ballots identified by the secretary of state and an unknown number of provisional ballots due by Nov. 10, while Mississippi Republicans say roughly 20,000 ballots remain outstanding.
Hyde-Smith's lawyers asked all 82 counties to keep provisional ballots separate and preserve processing records as potential evidence, while Colom's team says that demand lacks legal basis and could threaten ballot secrecy.
Mississippi has no automatic or formal recount procedure, leaving judges to resolve disputes through ballot-box examinations or other post-election challenges before the Nov. 13 certification deadline.
The outcome could end nearly 40 years of Republican control of Mississippi's Senate seats, expand Democrats' Senate majority and make Colom the state's first Black elected US senator since 1875.