8 min read
Major Takeaways
- Lawyers for Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith ordered election officials in all 82 Mississippi counties to separate, secure, and preserve every affidavit ballot cast in the November 3 general election.
- A national Republican committee sent a parallel demand and called the ballots potential evidence in an election contest or a proceeding before the United States Senate.
- State Republican chairman Mike Hurst called the affidavit ballot count very abnormal, but he could not cite affidavit totals from past statewide races to back up the claim.
- The Colom campaign answered publicly for the first time and called the preservation demand a desperate stunt by a side that knows it is about to lose.
- About 20,000 ballots remain outstanding, around 17,000 of them affidavit ballots, and Scott Colom leads by 1,813 votes in a state with no recount law.
The fight over Mississippi and its undecided Senate race moved from the ballot box to the lawyers on Thursday.
Attorneys for Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith sent a formal demand to election commissioners and circuit clerks in all 82 counties. The letter orders the immediate separation, secure custody, and preservation of all affidavit ballots cast in the November 3 general election.
Scott Colom leads this race by 1,813 votes. As our count updates have shown, that margin has moved more than once since election night. The ballots named in this letter could protect that lead, erase it, or become evidence in a legal fight over the seat itself.
Both Campaigns Take the Fight Public
By Thursday afternoon, the legal fight had a public face. Mississippi Republican Party chairman Mike Hurst stood before reporters in Jackson and addressed the affidavit ballots directly.
Hurst called the number of affidavit ballots cast in this election “very abnormal in any race that we’ve seen in Mississippi’s history.”
Pressed for a comparison, Hurst could not provide the average number of affidavit ballots cast in past statewide races. He offered no affidavit totals from the 2024 Senate race or the 2023 governor race to show how this year breaks from the norm.
The claim, for now, stands without those numbers behind it. What Hurst could confirm is the scale of the operation watching the count.
He said the party has placed more than 50 attorneys and volunteer observers across the state. He said he did not expect a lawsuit “for a while,” and he said the national Republican committees are prepared to descend on Mississippi “at a moment’s notice.”
Hyde-Smith spoke for herself on Thursday as well. In her first statement on X since election morning, the senator said she will represent Mississippi for the next six years. She pointed to thousands of votes that remain uncounted in Republican counties.
The Colom campaign also answered in public for the first time since the letter landed. Campaign manager Gerard Henderson did not hold back.
“This desperate stunt from national Republicans is what you do when you know you’re about to lose a race,” Henderson said.
Henderson said his side is confident of the outcome once the count is complete. When every lawful ballot is counted, he said, Scott Colom will be the next senator from Mississippi.
What the Letter Demands From Every County
The demand came from Lex Politica, the law firm representing Hyde-Smith and her campaign committee. It is signed by attorneys Jessica Furst Johnson, Eric Wang, and Nadin Linthorst.
The letter orders counties to keep affidavit ballots separate from regular ballots and from absentee ballots. Each affidavit ballot is to stay sealed with the signed affidavit of the voter who cast it.
Counties must also document the disposition of every affidavit ballot. All materials tied to those ballots, along with every custody record, must be preserved without alteration.
The campaign gave counties a deadline of 5:00 PM Central on Thursday to confirm receipt and implementation. That deadline has now passed, and no confirmation has emerged on whether the counties have complied. Copies of the demand went to Secretary of State Michael Watson.
The firm grounded its demand in Mississippi law and in the federal Help America Vote Act. It argued that the eligibility of each ballot can only be verified if the ballots and their records stay intact and identifiable.
A Second Demand Raises the Stakes
The National Republican Senatorial Committee sent county officials a parallel letter of its own. The committee used language that points well beyond ordinary ballot counting.
The committee wrote that the ballots and records are potential evidence in any box examination under Mississippi Code Section 23-15-911, in an election contest, or in a proceeding before the United States Senate.
It said the preservation measures should stay in place through the canvass, through certification, and through any contest that follows. In plain terms, the party is preparing for a fight that could outlast the count itself.
The Hyde-Smith campaign struck the same note on Wednesday. It said it is confident the senator will be reelected once every legally cast vote is fully and accurately counted.
Why Affidavit Ballots Now Hold This Race
None of this would matter if affidavit ballots were a handful. This year in Mississippi, they are anything but.
The office of the Secretary of State flagged roughly 230,000 voter registrations as inactive this year, a purge built on faulty voter roll data. Voters who arrived at their polling places and learned their registration had been flagged had one option left. They cast affidavit ballots and trusted the process to sort it out later.
As our reporting this morning detailed, those affidavit ballots were cast statewide in huge numbers. The latest estimates count about 20,000 ballots still outstanding, roughly 17,000 of them affidavit ballots and about 3,000 of them absentee ballots. That pool of ballots is many times larger than the margin in this race.
The current count stands at 466,775 votes for Colom and 464,962 for Hyde-Smith, with Ty Pinkins at 20,007. The race remains too early to call, with 1,733 of 1,736 precincts in. Mail ballots and affidavit ballots can continue to arrive through November 10, and counties must certify their results by November 13.
Mississippi Has No Recount Law
One fact shapes everything about this letter. Mississippi has no recount law for a race like this one.
There is no automatic recount when a margin is this thin. There is also no recount that a candidate can simply request and receive.
That is what makes a preservation demand so significant. Locking down the ballots and their records is the necessary first step toward a court fight, or toward a contest that the United States Senate itself would decide.
Election law analysts note a further wrinkle. The election contest provisions in state law may not even apply to a United States Senate contest, which means a challenge could require a court order before a single ballot box is opened.
The legal teams are already in place on both sides. The Elias Law Group represents the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and is active in Mississippi on behalf of the Colom campaign.
What This Means for Black Mississippi Voters
The voters with the most at stake in this new fight did everything they were supposed to do. They registered. They showed up. Then many of them were told their names had been flagged, and they cast the only ballot the system would give them.
A large share of those voters are Black Mississippians, in the Delta, in Jackson, and along the Gulf Coast. These are communities where registration problems carry a long and bitter history, and where a flagged name at the polls is never just a paperwork issue.
Those ballots now sit in sealed envelopes at the center of a national legal fight. Preservation can protect them from loss or tampering. Preservation also keeps them available for a challenge aimed at keeping some of them out of the final count.
Affidavit ballots are counted after the voter presents acceptable identification to election officials. Anyone who cast an affidavit ballot on Tuesday should contact the circuit clerk in their county now and confirm that their ballot is on track to be counted.
The count continues, and the lead has already moved more than once since election night. The lawyers have arrived in force. This Senate seat may well be decided by the very voters whose registrations were flagged before they ever reached the polls.
