USAupdated 20m ago2 min read
Archive photo · 15 October 2023Scott Colom Leads Mississippi Senate Race Over Cindy Hyde-Smith With Thousands of Ballots Uncounted
“the last day that affidavit ballots could be fixed — a process known as curing”
“Each party has sent teams of lawyers into Mississippi, setting up the possibility for legal challenges over the result.”
Photo: WrS.tm.pl, Public domain · Cropped for layout
This article is an automated aggregation of coverage from news outlets. Our editorials offer in-depth analysis curated by the NewsCord team.
Scott Colom leads Cindy Hyde-Smith by roughly 2,500 to 3,000 votes. Mississippi counties must certify results by the Friday deadline with undecided outcome.
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Colom leads, counting drags
Mississippi voters awaited the outcome of the Senate race between Scott Colom and incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith as the latest tally showed Colom leading by about 2,500 ballots, less than 1% of the vote, with thousands of postal and affidavit ballots still uncounted.
Colom was leading Hyde-Smith by just under 3,000 votes with 98% of the vote in, while Secretary of State Michael Watson said seven more counties of the state's 82 counties still needed to upload their unofficial results.
Mississippi’s top election official said 2,732 absentee mail ballots were still out and that the deadline for election officials to receive them would be Tuesday, Nov. 10, as affidavit ballots also remained in the process.
Live totals showed Colom in the lead by about 2,760 votes Tuesday evening, with both candidates at about 49% of the vote, and final results depended on whether a candidate challenged certain ballots in court.
The New York Times described Tuesday as the last day that affidavit ballots could be fixed, known as curing, and it said mail-in ballots postmarked on Election Day could still arrive.
Deadlines, affidavit disputes
Mississippi’s election timeline tightened as Tuesday marked the deadline for voters to provide updated documentation for provisional ballots, and the Clarion-Ledger said provisional, or affidavit, ballots had to be verified to be counted.
As of Tuesday evening Watson said election officials had processed more than 18,000 affidavit ballots, while it also said Watson reported 2,323 mail-in absentee ballots were still outstanding.
Hyde-Smith told reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, "Votes should be counted, and that’s all we’re concentrating on today," as the race remained too close to call.
Colom’s campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee clashed over ballot handling, with the National Republican Senatorial Committee issuing a letter on Nov. 5 demanding that election commissioners and circuit clerks "separate and preserve all affidavit ballots."
Zemaryiah Johnson, an 18-year-old freshman at the historically Black Tougaloo College, faced instructions that she had to go somewhere else in an adjoining Mississippi county to ensure her vote was counted for Colom.
What comes next in court
Election-related lawsuits, if any, would likely be filed after full results were announced on or around Friday, Nov. 13, and the Secretary of State's Office was expected to reopen on Thursday, Nov. 12.
State law held that the deadline to certify results was this Friday, while thousands of postal and affidavit ballots remained uncounted and the deadline for both affidavit and mail-in ballots was on Tuesday.
Mississippi does not allow recounts, so a winner would be decided based on a plurality of votes, and both parties kept a close eye on the process.
Mississippi is the only state without a recount provision in its laws, and a losing candidate could challenge an outcome by appealing to the courts to argue that certain ballots should be included or excluded under federal or state law.
The tight race could still determine the winner because an unknown number of affidavit ballots and 2,578 still uncounted absentee-by-mail ballots remained.