In Mississippi, voters await cliffhanger Senate result with hope and frustration

Mississippi's nailbiting wait to find out who won the southern state's Senate race is nearly over a week after the US midterm elections, in a contest that could deliver their first Democratic senator in nearly four decades. Scott Colom, the Democrat, holds a lead of about 2,500 ballots - less than 1% - over his Republican opponent, the incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith, according to the latest tally. He would also pad the Democratic Senate majority-elect to 55 seats, with a knife-edge race in Alaska still to be called.

The Democrat's razor-thin advantage has defied political gravity in a conservative fortress that President Donald Trump won in 2024 by over 22 points. State law holds that the deadline to certify results is this Friday, but thousands of postal and affidavit ballots remain uncounted. Affidavit ballots are ones that were not immediately accepted because of a discrepancy such as lacking proper ID on election day.

In such cases, voters are asked to fill out a provisional ballot and return to resolve the issue. The deadline for both affidavit and mail-in ballots is on Tuesday.