Mississippi Senate Count: State Officials Cannot Confirm Outstanding Ballot Totals
With fewer than 2,000 votes separating the top two candidates, 82 counties are handling a high volume of affidavit ballots without a centralized tracking system.
By Leila Mansour ·
As of midday Friday, fewer than 2,000 votes separate incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democratic challenger Scott Colom in the Mississippi U.S. Senate race. Despite the razor-thin margin, state officials could not confirm exactly how many ballots remain to be counted.
Secretary of State Michael Watson stated that his office did not know the total number of outstanding provisional ballots. He confirmed that more than 9,000 of these ballots had been processed by Friday afternoon. Watson noted that the 82 counties in Mississippi are not required to transmit their election results to the state until next week.
The Colom campaign reported late Tuesday that it was aware of more than 15,000 provisional ballots, also known as affidavit ballots in the state. Conversely, the chair of the state Republican Party estimated on Thursday that there were 20,000 outstanding ballots, a figure that includes potential absentee votes. Those absentee ballots can legally be received until Nov. 10 if they were postmarked by Election Day.
Mississippi’s election administration is decentralized, with each county managing its own process. Michael Morse, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania, described the lack of available information as shocking for such a high-profile race. He said he was struggling to understand the unfolding situation and could not identify basic details about the count.
The provisional ballot rate in this election appears to be among the highest in the country. If the Colom campaign’s estimate of 15,000 affidavit ballots holds, it represents roughly 1.5% of the total votes cast in the Senate race. In the 2022 midterm cycle, only four states had a higher provisional ballot rate according to federal data.
This high rate stems from Mississippi’s unique approach to voter registration. In most states, voters marked as inactive can cast regular ballots for a few years while their status is reviewed. Mississippi requires these voters to cast affidavit ballots, which necessitate filling out additional forms and undergoing a case-by-case review by local officials before their votes are counted.
Local officials indicated that many voters had questionable eligibility when they arrived at polling places. The Mississippi Today outlet reported on the state’s experimental use of credit data to clean voter lists. Morse noted that this method could introduce unreliability, especially when combined with the requirement for inactive voters to use affidavit ballots.
Secretary of State Watson defended the process in a Tuesday post on X, stating that the extra time required for affidavit ballots was worth the election integrity gained by having cleaner voter rolls. Kathy Boockvar, the former Democratic secretary of state of Pennsylvania, observed that the process can feel suspicious to voters who believe they are eligible to vote normally.
