Democrat Scott Colom leads Mississippi Senate race as count nears completion

As of early Saturday afternoon, Democrat Scott Colom was ahead of Republican incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by 2,574 votes, with about 97% of the expected ballots counted, according to the Associated Press. The close margin has prompted both campaigns to retain lawyers in anticipation of potential court actions.

Mississippi officials continue to process outstanding absentee and provisional ballots, which must be verified by the Nov. 10 deadline. Secretary of State Michael Watson said his office had processed 11,202 provisional ballots, accepting 78% of them, but did not disclose the total remaining.

Colom’s campaign estimates up to 15,000 provisional ballots could be cast this cycle, citing concerns from voting-rights groups about recent voter-roll purges. Watson’s office previously authorized the use of unverified credit data to clean voter lists, a practice that led to some voters being mistakenly removed, according to Mississippi Today.

"We have implemented every available resource to ensure our elections are secure, and to ensure we do not have dead people, illegal aliens with fake addresses, or nonresidents voting in our elections," Watson said in a statement, urging patience as ballots are verified.

Colom criticized the voting-process challenges, saying he has advocated for early voting and a federal holiday for Election Day to improve accessibility.

"I’ve been complaining about it for months. We got to make voting accessible in this country," Colom told MS NOW.

Hyde-Smith’s campaign expressed confidence that remaining votes from Republican-leaning counties could maintain her lead.

"We believe thousands of votes remain to be counted from dozens of Republican counties, and we are confident those votes will reinforce her path to victory," the campaign said.

Both candidates remain optimistic about the final outcome as the count proceeds toward the deadline.