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.

Award-winning News Editor Ashton Pittman, a native of the South Mississippi Pine Belt, studied journalism and political science at the University of Southern Mississippi. Previously the state reporter at the Jackson Free Press, he drove national headlines and conversations with award-winning reporting about segregation academies. He has won numerous awards, including Outstanding New Journalist in the South, for his work covering immigration raids, abortion battles and even former Gov. Phil Bryantā€™s unusual work with ā€œThe Bad Boys of Brexit" at the Jackson Free Press. In 2021, as a Mississippi Free Press reporter, he was named the Diamond Journalist of the Year for seven southern U.S. states in the Society of Professional Journalists Diamond Awards. A trained photojournalist, Ashton lives in South Mississippi with his husband, William, and their two pit bulls, Dorothy and Dru.