Two important deadlines hit Tuesday afternoon in the still-unresolved Senate race in Mississippi: for resolving provisional ballots that were cast because of a question about a voter’s status and for receiving mail-in absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day.
Once those results are in, officials in all 82 counties have until the close of business Friday to certify their election results.
Democrat Scott Colom maintains his lead over Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) as of midday Tuesday, up by 2,536 votes in the unofficial tally, according to the Associated Press.
Mississippi has no provision for automatic vote recounts in close races, so a loser who wants to contest an outcome must wait until results are in and then file a lawsuit. That means any challenge to the results would be most likely to come after Friday’s certification.
The trends have been in Colom’s favor. The highest number of outstanding votes Tuesday were in Hinds County, a blue stronghold around the state capital of Jackson, with another chunk remaining in nearby Holmes County, which is even bluer.
Michael Watson (R), the secretary of state, said on social media Monday afternoon that there were slightly more than 2,500 absentee mail-in ballots still out. About 15,547 outstanding affidavit ballots had been processed, Watson said, and roughly 76 percent were accepted.
Campaign volunteers have been scrambling to make sure voters address the mistakes that left their ballots in limbo. Many of the contested ballots were from first-time or infrequent voters who might have hit some of Mississippi’s strict registration and ID requirements, Democratic staffers said, and a high percentage of those votes were for Colom.
Some voters were improperly kicked off the voting rolls because of address mistakes contained in voter information Watson had purchased from the Experian credit rating agency, the news site Mississippi Todayreported Friday.
In Forrest County, between Jackson and Gulfport, the county clerk’s office said Monday evening that most of affidavit ballots there had been processed but not yet reported to the state. Voters will have until 3 p.m. Tuesday, in line with state law, to come in and show their ID to “cure” a few remaining votes. Then the affidavits will be reported to the state.
Armies of lawyers and volunteers for both sides continued to monitor the vote count across the state’s 82 counties.
Colom has continued to hold public events and make appearances around the state, staging a virtual rally Sunday with Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams and entertainers Kerry Washington and Lance Bass.
Hyde-Smith has kept a low profile and made few public statements. “Thousands of votes remain to be tabulated, and we will stay diligent until every legitimate vote has been counted,” her campaign manager, Jake Monssen, said Monday via text message.
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