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Major Takeaways
- Scott Colom now leads Cindy Hyde Smith by 1,724 votes in the Mississippi Senate race, and the race remains too early to call.
- A fresh batch of ballots counted on Thursday added about 2,000 votes and widened a lead that stood at 1,138 on Thursday morning.
- About 3,600 mail ballots remain outstanding, along with thousands of affidavit ballots that workers are still reviewing across the state.
- Voters who cast affidavit ballots without photo ID have until November 10 to save their votes at the circuit clerk office.
- Counties must certify results by November 13, and Mississippi law provides no automatic recount, however close the finish becomes.
The Mississippi Senate race moved again on Thursday.
Scott Colom now leads Cindy Hyde Smith by 1,724 votes.
The newest count widened his edge by 586 votes in one update.
The race still has no winner, and thousands of ballots remain.
The New Numbers in the Mississippi Senate Race
Colom holds 466,226 votes, or about 49.0 percent.
Hyde Smith holds 464,502 votes, or about 48.9 percent.
Independent Ty Pinkins holds about 20,000 votes, or 2.1 percent.
Precincts have reported in 1,733 of 1,736 locations statewide.
About 95.8 percent of the expected vote has now been counted.
The call status remains too early to call.
On Thursday morning, our earlier report put the lead at 1,138 votes.
That tally had Colom at 464,926 votes and Hyde Smith at 463,788.
The new batch added 1,300 votes to the Colom total.
It added 714 votes to the Hyde Smith total.
Every new batch now matters, because the remaining pool keeps shrinking.
Black Voters Are Deciding This Race
Black voters make up about 30 percent of the voters in this race.
Exit survey data shows nearly all of them backed Colom.
Black Mississippians are about 35 percent of the state electorate.
That is the largest share of any state in the country.
Their turnout built the lead Colom now defends.
Hinds County, home to Jackson, delivered 61,793 votes for Colom.
Hyde Smith took just 14,702 votes in that county.
Majority Black counties in the Delta powered his margins as well.
Colom won 87.3 percent in Claiborne County and 87.1 percent in Jefferson County.
He also leads in DeSoto County, which backed Donald Trump by 24 points in 2024.
For Black Mississippians, this is bigger than one seat.
Communities that once fought simply to register now hold the deciding votes.
The ballots still under review belong to voters who showed up and demanded to be counted.
The Ballots Still on the Table
Two pools of ballots can still move this margin.
Secretary of State Michael Watson said about 3,600 mail ballots remain outstanding.
Mail ballots sent by Election Day count if they arrive by November 10.
That window covers five business days after the election.
The second pool is affidavit ballots, known elsewhere as provisional ballots.
Voters cast them when a name is missing from the poll book.
Voters also cast them when they lack an accepted photo ID.
The Colom campaign has put the affidavit total at roughly 15,000 statewide.
State officials have described the number only as unknown.
In Warren County alone, workers planned to count 709 affidavit ballots on Thursday.
Our look at the affidavit ballot fight explains why those votes now sit at the center of this race.
Faulty voter roll data pushed thousands of voters into inactive status this year.
Many of those voters had to cast affidavit ballots on Election Day.
Both Campaigns Brace for a Long Count
Neither campaign is treating 1,724 votes as a final answer.
The Hyde Smith campaign says it expects to prevail once every legally cast vote is counted.
Campaign manager Jake Monssen said the team is closely monitoring the thousands of ballots still outstanding.
Colom has voiced the same confidence from the other side of the margin.
“I’m excited for the days to come,” he told supporters.
“Deep down in my soul I believe we’re about to show the country Mississippi matters.”
Both sides have lawyers watching the count across the state.
A legal fight over individual ballots remains possible as counties review them.
What Happens Next in the Mississippi Senate Race
The calendar now controls this race as much as the candidates do.
Mail ballots must arrive by November 10 to count.
Affidavit voters who lacked photo ID must show it by November 10 as well.
Counties must certify their results by November 13.
The Secretary of State declares the statewide results on December 3.
There is no runoff in this federal race.
The candidate with the most votes wins, even below 50 percent.
There is also no automatic recount under Mississippi law.
Only a court can order one, and challenges target specific ballots.
Follow the full board on our election tracker as the count continues.
History Still Waits on the Final Count
If this lead holds, Colom rewrites Mississippi history.
He would be the first Black Mississippian elected to the United States Senate since Reconstruction.
He would be the first Democrat to win a Mississippi Senate race since John Stennis in 1982.
Colom, 43, has served since 2016 as district attorney for Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Clay and Noxubee counties.
He is a seventh generation Mississippian from Columbus.
Democrats have already won control of the Senate without this seat.
Mississippi will decide how large that majority becomes.
More than that, Mississippi will decide whose votes get counted to the very end.
Black voters built this lead one polling place at a time.
Their ballots deserve the final word.
