Mississippi Senate: The Two Deadlines That Decide It

Описание: Mississippi's U.S. Senate race between Scott Colom (D) and Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) is NOT CALLED by the AP as of Mon, Nov. 9, 2026. The last public counts are from Friday, Nov. 6 (last AP update 6:02 p.m. ET). Two deadlines this week decide what is left.

HOW IT GOT HERE: Colom about 49.1%, Hyde-Smith about 48.8%, independent Ty Pinkins just over 2%. Early Wed, Nov. 4, Colom led by 43 votes (NBC News), "a few dozen"; by Friday afternoon, Nov. 6, he led by more than 2,500 (CBS News; AP about 2,500). Colom, 43, is a district attorney; Hyde-Smith, 67, is the incumbent.

WHAT'S LEFT: all Election Day precincts have reported. Secretary of State Michael Watson said Friday about 3,300 mail ballots remained. The AP estimated Friday afternoon about 30,000 ballots statewide still to count. About 7,000 provisional (affidavit) ballots processed so far, roughly 80% accepted. Rankin County: 1,600+ provisional and several hundred mail ballots still processing. Hinds County: Colom leads by roughly 47,000, with about 7% of ballots outstanding.

DEADLINE 1, TUE NOV. 10: last day for mail ballots postmarked by Election Day to arrive (five business days).
DEADLINE 2, FRI NOV. 13: counties must certify their totals, including affidavit (provisional) ballots (10-day window).

THE RULES: the candidate with the most votes wins (plurality). There is no automatic recount in Mississippi; a recount generally requires a court order.

THE SENATE: Democrats have at least 54 seats (NBC News projection); a majority is 51. Alaska and Mississippi decide 54-46, 55-45 or 56-44. Alaska (not called): Mary Peltola (D) 48.2% leads Dan Sullivan (R) 47.9% by 637 votes in the latest AP count, about 74% reported; ranked-choice tabulation targeted for Nov. 18.

Ballot Brief arithmetic (ours, not a forecast): the 0.3-point gap; the lead grew by about 2,457 votes from Wednesday to Friday; 80% of 7,000 is about 5,600; to overturn a 2,500 lead among about 30,000 ballots, Hyde-Smith would need to win them by more than about 8 points; with the 3,300 mail ballots alone, she would need about 2,900 of them (88%); Republican seats called: 44.

CHAPTERS
0:00 Intro
0:24 How it got here
1:33 What's left
2:59 Deadline 1: Tuesday, mail
4:02 Deadline 2: Friday, certification
4:47 The rules
5:30 What it means for the Senate
6:26 What to watch this week
6:52 Recap

Ballot Brief calls no races and takes no side. Figures are unofficial; nothing here is a prediction.

Sources:
CBS News, updated Nov 6, 2026 6:13 PM EST: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mississi...
Election Central, Nov 7, 2026: https://www.uspresidentialelectionnew...
NBC Chicago / NBC News, Nov 4, 2026: https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local...
AP results (not called; last AP update Nov 6, 6:02 p.m. ET): https://apnews.com

Photos: public domain / CC0 / Wikimedia Commons, except as credited.
Photo credits (CC): "Mississippi State Capitol.jpg" by Shawn Lea (Szlea), via Flickr, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
"210103 Snowy capitol.jpg" by James Brooks, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Portraits: "Scott_Colom_2_(cropped).png" by The Contrarian, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...
Cindy Hyde-Smith: United States Senate, public domain. Michael Watson: Andrew Young, public domain (US federal government work).
Narration uses an AI voice.

#Mississippi #Senate #Election2026