Democrat leads by just over 2,000 votes in surprisingly tight Mississippi Senate race
Watch: Inside Mississippi's ballot counting in tight Senate race
Three days after Election Day, the closely contested US Senate race in Mississippi between Democrat Scott Colom and Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith remains undecided.
With 96% of votes counted as of Friday morning, Colom had expanded his lead by over 2,000 votes. Thousands of provisional and absentee ballots have yet to be counted.
Hyde-Smith's campaign has urged election officials to immediately segregate provisional ballots from regular and absentee ballots, hinting at a potential legal battle.
Colom's campaign called the move a "desperate stunt," according to CBS News, the BBC's US partner. The deadline to certify results of the election is 13 November.
Mississippi does not have automatic recounts for tight races or allow candidates to request one.
Colom would be the first Democratic candidate elected to the upper chamber in more than 40 years, if he wins. He would also be the first black US senator elected in the state since 1875.
Hyde-Smith, the first woman to represent Mississippi in the U.S. Congress, was elected in 2018 and has Donald Trump's endorsement. The president won the state by more than 22 points in 2024.
Both campaigns projected confidence as the count continued.
"We remain confident that when every legally cast vote is fully and accurately counted, Mississippians will have reelected Cindy Hyde-Smith," her campaign said in a statement.
The Democrat's campaign had an "army of lawyers" working to ensure the count continued "ensure the process is followed according to the law", Colom said on Wednesday.
"I am very happy with where we stand," Colom said. "I'm confident once the process plays out, where we are, where the ballots are, we're gonna win."
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The Democratic Party had sent extra funding to the Mississippi race in recent weeks, seeing an unexpected opportunity to flip the seat.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has dispatched extra legal and campaign resources to the state as the count continues, Punchbowl News reported.
Hyde-Smith led the race early on with about 30% of votes counted, but as more ballots were processed, Colom started to edge ahead.
The state allows mail-in ballots to be counted if they are postmarked by Election Day and received within five business days later.
About 3,300 absentee ballots remained outstanding as of Thursday, Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson said in a statement.
Several thousand affidavit ballots also remain to be counted. Voters can cast these ballots at polling sites if they say they are eligible but do not appear on the rolls or there is another issue. Election officials then set them aside for extra verification.
That means the race is very likely not to be called until at least 10 November, said Julie Wronski, an associate professor of political science at the University of Mississippi.
"Because the difference between the two candidates is so narrow, really, we're going to have to wait for every single vote received in any capacity to be counted," Wronski said.
Mississippi is a state home to the largest percentage of African Americans in the US, at nearly 40%, a group that overwhelmingly votes Democratic and reportedly showed up in large numbers this election.
Charles Taylor, director of the NAACP's Mississippi branch, told the BBC his organisation saw a huge swell in black voter participation leading into Election Day.
"We saw long lines for absentee voting," Taylor said. "We saw long lines in person yesterday. Folks everywhere were motivated across the state."
"So, when the data comes back, I think it's going to tell a story that black voters turned out and turned out big."
[BBC]
