Mississippi and Alaska Senate Races Likely to Remain Unresolved for Days
Tight margins in the Mississippi and Alaska Senate contests could delay final results for several days or weeks as mail-in and remote ballots are counted and Alaska's ranked-choice process begins.
The Senate contests in Mississippi and Alaska are too close to call, and officials expect the final outcomes may not be known for days or even weeks. In Mississippi, Democratic challenger Scott Colom holds a narrow 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, extending the timeline.
"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 further prolong the process. 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.