Liveblog: Mississippi’s 2026 U.S. Senate Election Results

Democrat Scott Colom now leads Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by 2,010 votes, further eroding the incumbent’s path to victory. Colom leads Hyde-Smith by 467,066 to 465,056, or 49.1%-48.8%, the Associated Press reported in an update at 11:36 a.m.

Hyde-Smith had hoped to begin making up lost ground as affadavit ballot totals trickle in, but so far, Colom’s lead has steadily grown with each new batch of votes counted.

Thousands of affidavit ballots remain to be counted across the state, though, and more mail-in absentee ballots could still arrive. Many of the outstanding absentee ballots are in Hinds County, home of the majority-Black and heavily Democratic capital city of Jackson.

As everyone waits for a definitive conclusion to Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race between Cindy Hyde-Smith and Scott Colom, county election officials also have to ensure they certify election results in the time period required by law.

Mississippi law mandates that each county’s respective election commission certify election results and transmit them to the secretary of state by 10 days after the election. This year’s deadline is Nov. 13, one week from today.

That follows another important deadline of Nov. 10. That is the last day for mailed-in absentee ballots that were postmarked by Election Day to arrive. It is also the last day for voters who did not bring their ID to the polls and had to vote affidavit to show their ID to their circuit clerk’s office for their vote to count.

A DeSoto County election official confirmed that the press and the public can watch, but not listen, to the canvassing process to determine which unopened affidavit ballots to accept and which to reject. Laura Edler, DeSoto County District 1 election commissioner, told the Mississippi Free Press today that, following what she described as the direct advisement of Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson, the DeSoto County Election Commission would only allow observers to sit in an adjoining room to watch the process to allow the commissioners to discuss which unopened ballots were appropriately cast in DeSoto County. Watson’s office did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

This follows an ACLU letter alleging that DeSoto County is failing to properly follow Miss. Code Ann. § 23-15-581, which states in part that “during the holding of the election and the counting of the ballots, the whole proceedings shall be in fair and full view of the voting public.” Next week, when ballots are to be reviewed and counted, Edler confirmed that both the press and the public would be allowed into the room with election officials to fully hear and see the process.

Edler stated that relevant guidance on elections specifically only provided for the public to share the room with the election process during voting and final counting. The Mississippi Free Press asked directly if the quorum of election commission officials meeting in their official capacity to discuss and decide ballot eligibility did not require the full access of the public under the state’s Open Meetings Act, as discussed in Gannett River States Publishing Co. v. City of Jackson (2004) and Hinds County Board of Supervisors v. Common Cause (1989). Edler acknowledged the Mississippi Supreme Court decisions but would “have to default to the (Secretary of State) on this as we are following his directive.”

DeSoto County continues to process its roughly 2,100 affidavit ballots, with Edler telling the Mississippi Free Press today that the commission should be ready to review and count accepted ballots by next Wednesday or Thursday. Edler did not provide an overall rejection rate, but stated that “more than half” of the examined affidavit ballots that she has personally reviewed involved previously inactive voters who have been reactivated and whose ballots would count in the final tally.

Election workers in Mississippi’s largest county are still in the process of counting affidavit ballots that could determine the outcome of Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race. While some Hinds County Election Commissioners were able to provide information on how many affidavit votes they reviewed, others are reviewing records precinct-by-precinct so they do not have counts yet, Hinds County District 2 Election Commissioner Bobbie M. Graves told the Mississippi Free Press. 

Each commissioner has to verify the voter registration of each affidavit voter in the state’s voter registration database, and they often have to call voters for more information to complete the verification process.

There are approximately 650 affidavit ballots that need to be verified and counted in District 5, Hinds County Election Commissioner Felicia McClinton told the Mississippi Free Press. Hinds County District 3 received 387 affidavit votes, election oversight volunteer and local lawyer June Hardwick told the Mississippi Free Press. Hardwick sat in on the District 3 count with Election Commissioner Jermal Clark.

Hinds County Election Commission Chair Yvonne Robinson Ford is one of the commissioners who is reviewing her district’s affidavit votes precinct-by-precinct, so there is not yet a complete count of affidavit votes in district 4. Ford has completed affidavit counts and verification calls for five of her 14 precincts as of Thursday night, totalling in 136 so far. 

The Mississippi Free Press submitted a Public Records Request to Hinds County on Thursday asking to physically view each precinct’s ballot accounting form in order to get a full count of absentee votes submitted in the county. Hinds County’s legal team is reviewing the request, Hinds County CIrcuit Court Clerk Zach Wallace told the Mississippi Free Press in a Thursday email. 

“They could, but … with all this, they’re not gonna update you all every day, daily on what we’re doing because we’re not gonna turn a number in until everyone is complete,” District 1 Commissioner Kidada Brown said on Wednesday.

Harrison County counted 1,448 affidavit ballots from Tuesday’s election at a public meeting earlier today, District 3 Election Commissioner Jennifer Smith told the Mississippi Free Press. The Harrison County Election Commission will host a public meeting on Nov. 10 at 10 a.m. at the election commission building at 2600 24th Ave, Gulfport, Mississippi, and will determine at that time which affidavit ballots to accept and reject.

In order to regain a lead, U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith likely needs to begin making gains with affidavit ballots. But she only leads Colom in Harrison County by 50.4%-46.7%, meaning if she made any gains in Harrison County’s affidavit ballots, they would likely be minimal. She currently trails Colom by 1,936 votes.

Democrat Scott Colom’s lead over incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith inched up further this morning to 1,936 votes after Bolivar County counted 184 more votes for Colom and 61 more for Hyde-Smith.

The Bolivar County Circuit Clerk’s Office said affidavit ballots have not been counted yet, however. With about 94% of votes counted in Bolivar County, Colom leads Hyde-Smith there by a 70%-29% margin. Statewide, Colom leads Hyde-Smith 49.1%-48.8%.

Thousands of affidavit ballots remain to be counted across the state, and more mail-in absentee ballots could still arrive.

With the outcome of Mississippi’s U.S. Senate election between Democrat Scott Colom and U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith hinging on the results of affidavit ballots, the Mississippi Free Press is working to find out how many affidavit ballots each county has uncounted.

We have the following affadavit ballot totals from several counties in North Mississippi and the Golden Triangle:

Clay County: 248
Lee County: 1,545
Lowndes Coutny: 550
Noxubee County: 75
Oktibbeha County: ~900

Colom currently leads in all counties, except for Lee, where Hyde-Smith leads 58%-40%.

It is not clear how many, if any, affidavit ballots have been counted thus far in each county.

Totals reported by the Commercial Dispatch, except for Lee County, which MS Live Weather reported.

Lawyers for Democrat Scott Colom are warning county election commissioners and circuit clerks across Mississippi that a demand from the National Republican Senatorial Committee to segregate affidavit ballots from other ballots “will violate Mississippi voters’ rights and Mississippi election law.” The back-and-forth comes as Colom leads incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by 1,882 votes in Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race.

“Earlier this afternoon, you received a letter from counsel to Cindy Hyde-Smith for U.S. Senate, demanding that you take unlawful and extraordinary measures in handling affidavit ballots in the U.S. Senate race,” the letter from the Elias Law Group says. “… Hyde-Smith cites no legal authority whatsoever in demanding that affidavit ballots, once processed and accepted, be maintained separately from regular and absentee ballots. That is because there is no legal authority for that demand.”

The letter notes that the “Mississippi Supreme Court has specifically cautioned against departures from the required counting procedures that would undermine ‘the secrecy of a voter’s ballot’ and ‘violate the fundamental principle of the right to cast a secret ballot.’”

Read the full letter here.

In a Thursday afternoon update, Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson said that 3,300 absentee mail ballots are outstanding. As long as mail ballots are postmarked by Election Day and arrive within five days of the election, they are counted. Watson said that 6,936 affidavit ballots have been processed.

The Republican secretary of state also said that 73 counties have uploaded unofficial results to the Statewide Election Management System, though those results are not visible to the public.

The NAACP is deploying “national, legal, policy, and field staff” to Mississippi amid a razor-thin Senate election, with the intent of assisting the state’s NAACP conference and voters properly cure and count all ballots.

In a statement, National NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in part that “Black voters in Mississippi did everything right. They registered, turned out, stood in line, and cast their ballots. Now the process has to do its part. Our field and legal teams are working around the clock in Mississippi to make sure voters who used provisional ballots are counted.”

Over the next week, the process of publicly counting remaining affidavits, mail in votes and other provisional ballots will continue in county election commission across Mississippi.

With the outcome of Mississippi’s U.S. Senate election between Democrat Scott Colom and U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith hinging on the results of affidavit ballots, the Mississippi Free Press is working to find out how many affidavit ballots each county has uncounted.

Rankin County received 1,667 affidavit ballots, but county election commissioners have not yet decided which to accept or reject, Rankin County Circuit Clerk Michelle Adcock reported in a Facebook post on Wednesday evening. The county also received 282 mail-in absentee ballots that commissioners need to process.

That’s a county where Hyde-Smith leads Colom 61.7%-36.1%. If she won affadavit and mail-in absentee ballots by the same margin, she would net 499 votes from Rankin County. But in Lafayette County, Colom did significantly better among affadavit ballots than in overall votes.

The county could as receive up to 138 additional mail-in absentee ballots as long as they are postmarked and received within five business days of the election, which is Tuesday, Nov. 10. The totals remained the same on Thursday, Adcock said.

In all, 52.23% of registered Rankin County cast a ballot for the Nov. 3 election. The circuit clerk said Rankin County’s chancery court judge race will likely headed to a runoff election between Bo Agnew and Keri H. Carroll if no candidate on the ballot receives least 50% of the vote, unofficial results show. Madison and Rankin counties’ circuit court judge race could also have a runoff election between Sarah Butler and Scott Gilbert.

Democrat Scott Colom has expanded his lead in Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race to 1,813, netting an additional 136 votes over incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. The latest vote figures come from Wayne, Itawamba, Lafayette, Franklin, Webster, Madison and Tallahatchie counties.

Across those counties, Colom gained an additional 521 votes while Hyde-Smith gained 385 votes.

Jackson County Circuit Clerk Randy Carney told the Mississippi Free Press there are 138 outstanding absentee ballots and over 1,400 total affidavit ballots being counted in Jackson County. Carney said 280 absentee ballots have already been received. 

Carney said to his knowledge, at least affidavit 327 have been counted, citing information from Election Commission Chairman Danny Glaskox.

The Jackson County Election Commissioner’s Office will resume counting ballots at 7 a.m. tomorrow. The process is open to public viewing.

Mississippi Republican Party Chairman Mike Hurst told reporters in Jackson, Mississippi, on Thursday afternoon that the party is prepared to “fight like hell” to ensure all legal votes have been cast and are prepared to file court challenges “if and when” the team finds evidence the law has been violated.

Hurst also said that some counties have not divulged how many affidavit ballots are outstanding. Hurst did not identify those counties.

“Right now, there’s nothing for us to do under state law, but there may be available, there may be things available to us after the fact,” he said.

Democrat Scott Colom’s campaign is calling the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s demand for state officials to separate and preserve affidavit ballots “a desperate stunt.”

“This desperate stunt from national Republicans is what you do when you know you’re about to lose a race. We’re confident that when every lawful ballot is counted, Scott Colom will be Mississippi’s next U.S. senator,” Colom campaign manager Gerard Henderson said.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee is demanding that all county election commissioners and circuit clerks across Mississippi’s 82 counties separate and preserve all affidavit balltos cast in the Nov. 3, 2026, election. The move comes as incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith trails Democratic challenger Scott Colom in the race for her U.S. Senate seat.

“These measures are necessary to ensure that each affidavit ballot’s eligibility for counting and ultimate disposition can be verified,” the letter says. “As you know, under Mississippi law, each affidavit ballot must be sealed in an envelope bearing the voter’s written and signed affidavit and name, and affidavit voters must be recorded in a separate receipt book. … The County Election Commission is responsible for verifying the affidavit ballot envelopes and counting legally cast ballots,” the letter says.

Counties across the state are still counting thousands of affidavit ballots and the count could go into next week. Both Republicans and Democrats have sent in lawyers as Colom continues to lead by razor-thin margins.

Read the full letter here.

Democrat Scott Colom’s lead over incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has now grown to 1,764 votes as counties continue to count ballots to determine the winner of Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race. Thousands of votes remain to be counted, many of them in majority-Black Hinds County, and Colom’s campaign has said they are confident that the remaining vote will only pad his lead.

Lily Moens, policy and research director at the Mississippi Votes Action Fund, told the Mississippi Free Press that her organization has received several reports about people not being allowed to watch election officials count votes. She emphasized that reports that the public are excluded from vote canvassing are not true.

“It is a public process,” she said. “So, we want to make sure that folks are aware that this is supposed to be an open, public process and they are permitted to go and observe. We’re seeing varying levels of information that’s being shared with the public when they actually go in.”

Hinds County election officials are unsure when all of the county’s affidavit votes will be counted. Hinds County Election Commission Chair Yvonne Robinson Ford explained that the county has 108 voter precincts, which are divided among the election commissioners based on their respective districts. As a result, each commissioner is responsible for accounting for each affidavit ballot in each voter precinct within their district.

Roughly 2,100 affidavit ballots—also known as provisional ballots—are still to be reviewed and counted in DeSoto County, where Scott Colom is currently leading Cindy Hyde-Smith 52% to 46%. Laura Edler, DeSoto County District 1 election commissioner, confirmed in a Thursday morning conversation with the Mississippi Free Press that DeSoto County would be meeting to count the remaining ballots sometime next week, tentatively Nov. 10 after 6 P.M., with Nov. 11 or Nov. 12 as alternatives. That date will be finalized by tomorrow.

Edler explained that this number does not include affidavit ballots for voters without proper photo ID—a minuscule number—as well as outstanding mailed absentee ballots. But, she added, she expects these additional pools are likely to be a significantly smaller share of the vote compared to the 2,100 provisionals.

DeSoto County is estimated to have some of the most provisional ballots due to voter inactivations in the state. Notably, Edler said that these provisional ballots show comparable numbers across all five districts.

If you didn’t bring your ID with you to vote on Tuesday and had to vote affidavit, you have until Nov. 10 to bring your ID to your county’s circuit clerk office to confirm your ballot.

Hinds County Election Commission Chair Yvonne Robinson Ford said student IDs issued from state-affiliated universities are valid photo IDs for voting purposes, and driver’s licenses up to 10 years old are accepted. However, student IDs from private universities—like Belhaven University or Millsaps College—are not accepted.

Three of Hinds County’s five election commissioners gathered to explain the process of counting affidavit ballots on Wednesday afternoon and asked for patience and understanding that it will take time.

“I ask everyone to please be patient,” Commission Chair Yvonne Robinson Ford said. “Give us a chance because this is going to be a long process. So just give us some grace, give us some patience.”

Commissioners begin by separating the ballots from voters who did not present an ID. These voters have until Nov. 10 to show their ID to the circuit clerk’s office to have their affidavit vote verified. Additionally, commissioners are responsible for verifying all affidavit ballots in their respective districts, which can include between 14 and 28 precincts.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Scott Colom continued to express confidence Thursday morning during a breakfast appearance at Brent’s Drugs in Jackson, Mississippi. The Associated Press reports Colom’s lead over incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde Smith stands at 1,138 votes. Decision Desk HQ reports a bigger lead of 1,818 votes.

“People across the country are going be surprised, but I’m not going to be surprised. And the thing that people need to understand, it’s not about me. It’s about the people of Mississippi,” Colom said. “
They decided to go in a new direction. They volunteered. They knocked on doors. 
They donated to the campaign. There’s people here who told me, ‘I just went to the supermarket, and I just passed out literature,’ right? With the vote count, that mattered. 
Everything, everybody did mattered. The people in Mississippi deserve credit for this. And I’m so proud of my state.”

Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race has not been called for Democrat Scott Colom, despite a Facebook post from the Congressional Black Caucus PAC congratulating him and saying that “HISTORY IS MADE IN MISSISSIPPI!” Colom holds a narrow lead over incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, but thousands of votes remain to be counted. Many of those votes come in areas favorable to Colom such as Hinds County, but thousands of affidavit votes also remain to be counted.

Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson says that approximately 3,600 absentee mail ballots have not been returned. State law says any ballots postmarked by Election Day will be counted so long as they arrive within five business days of an election.

Democrat Scott Colom’s lead over incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has grown from 65 earlier to 1,138 votes with an estimated 96% of votes counted. Significant votes are still outstanding in Democratic-friendly Hinds County, as well as thousands of affidavit ballots.

Independent candidate Ty Pinkins, who ran as Mississippi Democrats’ U.S. Senate nominee in a prior election, said on CNN that his campaign drew more votes from Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith than from Democrat Scott Colom and that he hopes Colom wins. “I’m happy we drew votes from Cindy Hyde-Smith.”

He notes that his best counties were Republican-leaning counties. He has 2% of the vote, even as Colom leads Hyde-Smith by just 65 votes.

Earlier, a Hinds County election worker said they expected to have affadavit ballot totals by 4:30 p.m. CST. Election workers now say they do not know how long it will take to finish counting them.

Scott Colom, speaking to students at Millsaps College in Jackson (where he is an alumnus): “I’m not really worried about blue waves, red waves. I worry about the Mississippi wave. You know, I’m proud of what Mississippi did. And the work is just beginning, because winning an election is the first part. The second part is delivering for the people.”

“And I’m committed to a fight to lower cost, raise wages, make sure healthcare is affordable and accessible, make sure college students have access to student loans because I believe y’all people need to live their dreams, right? 
I’ve been able to live my dream. Mississippi allowed me to live my dream. There’s nothing wrong with Mississippi that can’t be fixed with what’s right about Mississippi, and I’m living proof of that.”

Jackson County Election Commissioner Danny Glaskox told the Mississippi Free Press that voters across the county expressed concerns about long poll lines, which was largely due to some precincts lacking enough voting machines to accommodate the large voter turnout. 

“We just didn’t have enough equipment out there,” Glaskox said. “We’re gonna look at buying more equipment because nobody expected this big a turnout for a midterm election.” 

Before the last election, Glaskox said, each precinct had one touchscreen. He said he purchased an additional 150 touchscreen ExpressVote machines ahead of this election so there were “enough ExpressVotes to send out multiple.” 

“We had some extra ExpressVotes, but some of the commissioners didn’t think we needed to send them out,” Glaskox said. “I don’t make the decisions for them, I just make the decisions in my precinct.” 

Glaskox said there were two or three ballot scanner machines left and around 25 extra ExpressVotes machines left that weren’t set up ahead of this year’s midterm elections. With voter turnout higher than expected, Glaskox said election officials did not anticipate they would need these machines. He said setting up a new machine requires a careful testing process before it can be cleared to use in an election. 

“We don’t just go take a machine and take it out there. That machine has to be tested. It has to be cleared from the last election,” he said. “Then, we have to put the new data on it and test it with a test deck, so it’s not something you can just snap your fingers and do.”

Scott Colom’s lead in Mississippi’s U.S. Senate primary grew to 65 votes over incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, per the Associated Press count. Decision Desk Headquarters shows a higher vote total with Colom leading by nearly 2,000 votes.

Hinds County has begun counting affidavit ballots in Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race. Results are expected by 4:30 p.m., election workers say.

The Mississippi Center for Justice is encouraging the thousands of Mississippians who voted by affidavit or absentee ballot to contact their local county circuit clerk’s office to check the status of their ballot and find out whether any additional action is required.

“Ask whether your ballot was accept and, if not, why,” the organization says.

Any voter who voted by affadavit because they did not have a valid form of photo ID has 5 business days to present one at their local circuit clerk’s office.

Hinds County’s Resolution Board began reviewing absentee ballots today at 12:30 p.m., and the county’s five election commissioners will begin counting and verifying affidavit ballots at about 2 p.m., District 2 Election Commissioner Bobbie M. Graves told the Mississippi Free Press.

The county has 10 business days to certify the election results, but they aim to complete affidavit counting within five business days, District 5 commissioner Felicia McClinton told the Mississippi Free Press.

Hinds County Circuit Court Clerk Zack Wallace said issues at the ballot box in Hinds County were minimal. “I think, some of the issues they made it out to be big, but it was pretty much a ballot was jammed into the machine, and it wasn’t anything,” Wallace told the Mississippi Free Press.

“Mississippians turned out in strong numbers yesterday, and the race for U.S. Senate remains extremely close as counting continues,” U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s campaign team said in a Wednesday morning press release. “With the vast majority of Election Day ballots reported, the margin is measured in just dozens of votes. We have thousands of outstanding ballots, including affidavit and absentee ballots, which still must be processed and verified under Mississippi law.”

“Our campaign is closely monitoring the remaining count. We remain confident that when every legally cast vote is fully and accurately counted, Mississippians will have reelected Cindy Hyde-Smith. Cindy is deeply grateful to the hundreds of thousands of Mississippians who cast their ballots supporting strong borders, energy independence, and accountability in government. We thank the election workers and local officials across the state who are working diligently to ensure the integrity of this election.”

“I just want to start out by thanking the people of Mississippi from the bottom of my heart, whether you voted for me or not, thank you for using your power to exercise your vote yesterday. I’m very proud of our state. I’ve got to tell everybody I am very happy with where we stand. I’m confident once the process lays out where we are, where the ballots are, we’re going to win,” Democrat Scott Colom said this morning.

He vowed “to protect the process.”

“We’ve got lawyers who are ready to make sure the law is followed. We got volunteers in each county to make sure that that process is followed and we’re going to make sure that the process follows the law and has integrity,” he said. “Now, I think that anybody who can look at the math can see where this is going. It’s going to Scott Colom as the next United States senator.”

Jackson County Election Commissioner Danny Glaskox said his office just started counting affidavit ballots this morning due to delays with other ballots caused by an issue with the St. Martin Community Center precinct yesterday on Nov. 3.

Glaskox said the issues were caused by poll workers mistakenly operating machinery incorrectly. “One of our poll managers mistakenly pulled the memory stick out too quick,” Glaskox said, which contains all of the voting machines information. 

He said all issues were correct by 8:30 a.m. this morning and the only ballots left to be counted are now affidavit ballots. “There was a couple hundred of those ballots we had to scan, Glaskox said. “But we scanned those and as soon as I got them scanned I uploaded them to the state.” 

Glaskox said other precincts throughout Jackson County also experienced delays due to poll manager errors with operating voting equipment. “That printer that codes the ballot for them, there’s two plugs in the back. They will only go in one slot,” Glaskox said. “They weren’t plugging them all the way in and that was part of the problem.”

Harrison County District 3 Election Commissioner Jennifer Smith says the county will not count affidavit ballots until Nov. 10. It is not clear how many affidavit ballots were cast in Harrison County.

Democratic lawyer Marc E. Elias says his law firm is working to ensure Scott Colom wins as votes continue to be counted.

Democrat Scott Colom leads incumbent U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by 43 votes, with more than 90% of the vote counted. Thousands of votes still remain to be counted across the state, including 9,000 in Hinds County. One big question is how many affidavit ballots voters cast statewide, which could be decisive and take days to count.

Read more: Democrat Scott Colom Leads Mississippi US Senate Race by 43 Votes Against Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith