An unusual situation could be brewing in Mississippi, the only state in the country with no legal provision that allows for a recount of votes in a statewide election.
The Democratic candidate for Senate, Scott Colom, had a narrow 65-vote lead over the Republican incumbent, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, in the afternoon. His lead grew to 1,138 by the evening, but Mississippi’s secretary of state reported that about 3,600 absentee-by-mail ballots could still arrive within the allotted five business days, and that there were also an “unknown number of affidavit ballots.”
Some 47 states have a provision for an automatic recount if a contest is close or if a candidate requests a recount. Two more states, Illinois and Tennessee, allow recounts if a candidate mounts a formal legal challenge.
Most state recount provisions were instituted during the last century as a result of legal challenges that made their way to state supreme courts. But Mississippi has no recount law on the books, leaving it unprepared to handle a particularly close election.
There are still small batches of ballots to be counted in the state, and the margin between the candidates may widen. Mississippi, unlike many states, accepts mail-in ballots that arrive five days after Election Day, drawing out the counting process.
Ultimately, however, there is no legal path to a recount in the state. Derek Muller, a professor and expert on election law at the University of Notre Dame, said that a losing candidate could instead pursue a legal challenge over the inclusion of specific ballots or sets of ballots, which could result in a change in vote totals.
The post Why Doesn’t Mississippi Allow Election Recounts? appeared first on New York Times.
