Mississippi and Alaska Senate Races May Stay Unresolved for Days as Every Legitimate Ballot Is Counted
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Tight margins in Mississippi and Alaska mean the Senate contests could remain unsettled for several days or weeks while mail-in, remote, and provisional ballots are processed and Alaska’s ranked-choice system is set in motion.
The Senate contests in Mississippi and Alaska are far too close to call, and election officials expect the final outcomes may not be known for days or even weeks as every valid ballot is finally included. In Mississippi, Democratic challenger Scott Colom holds a razor-thin lead of fewer than 100 votes over incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith after about 950,000 ballots were counted on Nov. 4. Mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day can still be counted for five additional days, and provisional ballots may require legal review, stretching out the process as far as the rules allow.
"That might take us a very long time – days and weeks – to figure out exactly who the winner is in that very, very close election," said David Becker, a former DOJ voting-rights lawyer who runs the Center for Election Innovation & Research.
Becker noted that a recount request could slow the count even further. In Alaska, Democratic candidate Mary Peltola leads incumbent Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan by fewer than 1,000 votes with roughly 74% of ballots counted. The state’s remote precincts and a sizable military voter population, whose ballots can arrive up to 15 days after Election Day, add to the delay. If no candidate reaches a 50% threshold, Alaska’s ranked-choice voting will be triggered, with the redistribution of votes not beginning until Nov. 18.
"So it might be the second half of November where we get a really good sense of that," Becker added.