Democrat Scott Colom’s lead ticked up in Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race Wednesday as election officials entered the final stage of tallying results and certifying them to the state.
Colom led Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith by 3,041 votes, or 0.3 percentage points, according to unofficial results from the Associated Press.
About 98 percent of ballots have been counted. Counties have until Friday to certify their results, and new tallies will continue to trickle in between now and then.
Mississippi law doesn’t include a recount process for Senate races, but the trailing candidate could go to court to seek a retallying of ballots or to challenge the results. Flipping the results would be difficult because victories with margins of more than 1,000 votes nearly always stand, said David Becker, director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, a group that assists election officials.
Most of the outstanding votes are known as affidavit ballots, which voters cast if they don’t have identification with them at the polls or were listed as having inactive voter registrations.
Voters who didn’t have ID with them had to provide a copy by Tuesday. Election officials are spending the coming days checking the voter registrations of others who cast affidavit ballots and ensuring that they voted in the right precinct.
About three-quarters of affidavit ballots are being approved to be counted, Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson (R) said Monday on X.
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