Rankin County completed its affidavit and absentee ballot scans just before 9 p.m. on Tuesday.

Cindy Hyde Smith won 476 affidavit votes compared to Scott Colom’s 472. There were 21 ballots for independent candidate Ty Pinkins.

Absentee voters in Rankin County favored Hyde Smith, giving her 4,307 compared to Colom’s 2,772.

Hyde Smith has just over 61% of Rankin County’s total votes.

Capital Bureau Reporter Grace E. Marion is covering the capital city, Jackson, as well as surrounding rural, urban and suburban areas in Hinds County, Madison County and Rankin County. She is a reporter and photojournalist with a passion for narrative writing and investigative reporting. Her work as a journalist has earned her coverage in publications like the Columbia Journalism Review, the Hechinger Report, and the Student Press Law Center. Grace is a member of the Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) and the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ).

Grace graduated from the University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media in 2022 with a degree in print and broadcast journalism, and from the University of California at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism in 2024.