Mississippi Senate Race Leaves Thousands of Ballots Uncounted as Deadline Near
Officials in 82 counties are still verifying provisional votes in a race decided by fewer than 2,000 ballots, creating uncertainty over the final outcome.
By Peter Graham ·
As of midday on Friday, November 6, 2026, fewer than 2,000 votes separated incumbent Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democratic challenger Scott Colom in the Mississippi U.S. Senate race. Despite the razor-thin margin, state officials could not say exactly how many ballots remained to be counted. The uncertainty stems from a decentralized election process that places responsibility on individual counties to verify and report results.
The Colom campaign announced late on Tuesday that it was aware of more than 15,000 provisional ballots. These votes, known in Mississippi as affidavit ballots, require verification before they can be officially counted. On Thursday, the chair of the state Republican Party estimated there were 20,000 outstanding ballots. This estimate includes potential absentee votes that remain legally valid if postmarked by Election Day, even if received by officials as late as November 10.
Michael Watson, the Republican Secretary of State, stated that counties run their own elections. He noted that his office did not have a precise count of the remaining provisional ballots. Watson reported that more than 9,000 affidavit ballots had been processed by midday Friday. In a statement, Watson directed the public to individual counties for the latest information. He emphasized that certified results would not be available until the counties completed their processing. Mississippi has 82 counties, and they are not required to transmit election results to the state until next week.
Michael Morse, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania who studies voting, expressed concern over the lack of available data. He described Mississippi as not being a model of election administration. Morse said he was struggling to understand what was unfolding in the high-profile race. He stated that he could not tell basic things about the process due to the limited information provided by state officials.
The number of provisional ballots in Mississippi may end up being among the highest in the country for this election cycle. These ballots are cast by people whose eligibility is questionable, according to local officials. Officials then decide on a case-by-case basis whether to count each vote. If the Colom campaign's estimate of 15,000 affidavit ballots is accurate, it would represent roughly 1.5% of the total ballots cast in the Senate race. In the 2022 midterm elections, only four states had a provisional ballot rate higher than that figure, according to federal data.
A key factor in the high number of affidavit ballots is Mississippi's voter registration process. In most states, voters who have not cast ballots for a certain number of cycles or who may have moved are moved to inactive status. These voters can typically vote normally for a few years before their eligibility is confirmed or they are removed. Mississippi is one of the few states that requires these inactive voters to cast provisional ballots. This means they must fill out an additional form, and local officials must review their information after the fact before counting their votes.
Local media outlet Mississippi Today has reported on the state's experimental use of credit data to cull voter lists. Morse said this technique is garnering attention but is not the whole story. He noted that pairing the credit data experiment with a process that undermines typical procedural protections could introduce unreliability. In many other states, a voter marked as inactive could cast a regular ballot for at least the next two federal general elections.
Secretary of State Watson defended the state's registration process on Tuesday. He wrote on X that the extra few minutes required to vote via affidavit ballot are worth the election integrity added by having cleaner voter rolls. Kathy Boockvar, the former Democratic secretary of state of Pennsylvania, said the process does not always breed trust among voters. She described the experience as feeling like having to talk to a teacher in a back room. Boockvar added that transparency and good data are the best solutions to combatting suspicion and distrust in the election process.
