Democrat Scott Colom is overperforming among affidavit ballots in two Mississippi Delta counties in the race for U.S. Senate, continuing a pattern MFP has reported on elsewhere in Mississippi.

Hyde-Smith needs significant gains in affidavit ballots to overcome Colom’s more than 2,500-vote lead, but so far, affidavit ballots are only helping grow his lead overall. Below are the affidavit ballot figures for Humphreys and Sharkey counties.

Humphreys County

Scott Colom: 40 (83.3%)
Cindy Hyde-Smith: 8 (16.7%)

Among all votes cast in Humphreys County, Colom leads by 78%-21%.

Sharkey County

Scott Colom: 5 (71.4%)
Cindy Hyde-Smith: 1 (14.3%)
Ty Pinkins: 1 (14.3%)

Among all votes cast in Sharkey County, Colom leads by 63%-26%.

Other Delta counties have not yet counted or revealed their affidavit vote totals. Those include:

Yazoo County: 59 affidavit ballots
Warren County: About 700
Tate County: 317
Tallahatchie County: 22
Leflore County: 348
Issaquena County: 7
Washington County: 532

Read more stories from the Delta Bureau here.

Jaylin R. Smith, a Corps member for Report for America, is a multimedia journalist and motivational speaker from Greenwood, Mississippi. After receiving two bachelor’s degrees in communications from her beloved HBCU, Mississippi Valley State University, she continued her education at the University of Mississippi where she received a masters in Journalism and New Media. Over her college career, Jaylin has written articles for the Truist Leadership Institute, Overby Center for Southern Politics and Journalism, and the Hotty Toddy website. She was also chosen as a 2024 TEDx Speaker at the University of Mississippi. Her love for diversity and community have fueled her academic and professional interests, making the Delta Region reporter ideal for her. In her leisure time, Jaylin enjoys singing (very badly), writing poetry, hanging with friends, and being adventurous.

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 Bryant’s unusual work with “The 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.