Mississippi Senate race too close to call. When will we know?

• The Mississippi U.S. Senate race between Scott Colom and Cindy Hyde-Smith remains too close to call.
• Both candidates have expressed confidence in their eventual victory as vote counting continues.
• The final result depends on remaining precinct reports and the validation of affidavit and mail-in ballots.
• County clerks have until Nov. 13 to certify the election results.
• Mississippi law does not have provisions for automatic recounts or runoffs in federal general elections.

The morning after Election Day, as Mississippi's U.S. Senate race remained too close to call, Democratic candidate Scott Colom all but declared victory.

His opponent, Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, had done the same the night before.

CNN, the Associated Press and NBC all showed Colom ahead of Hyde-Smith by 43 votes as of noon on Nov. 4, though no network had called the race. There will be a winner declared in the race, one of two Senate contests yet to be called, but the timeline is unclear. Here is what we know so far.

When will we know who won the U.S. Senate election in Mississippi?

County clerks have 10 days to certify the results of the election, meaning the deadline to find out Mississippi's next U.S. Senator is Nov. 13, according to a spokesperson from the Secretary of State's office. The spokesperson declined to estimate when the results might be released.

The final decision in the race largely depends on two factors: the last batch of precinct reports and the counting of affidavit ballots.

The last batch of votes will mostly come from 11 counties, which had yet to report 10% or more of their ballots as of noon on Nov. 4. Five of those counties, including Hinds County, the state's most populated, favored Colom. Another five favored Hyde-Smith, and Scott County was a toss-up.

There are also affidavit ballots to consider, which were generally filed by people who did not have their voter ID or had been marked as inactive on voter rolls. The affidavit serves as a placeholder until the voter can present their ID at their precinct to validate the ballot.

This needs to be done within five business days for the vote to count, meaning all affidavit ballots need to be validated with voter ID by Tuesday, Nov. 10. Mississippi's Supreme Court victory earlier this year also allows mail-in ballots to arrive up to five days after the election and still be counted. Secretary of State Michael Watson announced on X on Nov. 4 that Mississippi had around 3,600 outstanding mail ballots.

Colom's campaign told the Clarion Ledger on Nov. 3 that there were around 15,000 affidavit ballots to be counted in the state. A spokesperson for the Secretary of State's office did not confirm that number.

It is possible that the result in the race will become clear prior to the Nov. 13 deadline. The timeline for most Mississippians, including Colom and Hyde-Smith, seems clear as mud.

What do Colom and Hyde-Smith think about the U.S. Senate race?

Both candidates assured their audiences in the wake of Election Day that they would almost certainly triumph.

"We're not calling all of it tonight, but we're in a very good lead," Hyde-Smith told the crowd at her Nov. 3 watch party toward the end of the night. "And I assure you, I will continue to be your U.S. Senator."

Hyde-Smith applauded the work of the Democratic Party, saying that they showed up in force on Election Day but that the effort ultimately would not be enough to oust her. Jake Monssen, her campaign manager, doubled down on the sentiment in a Nov. 4 statement.

"Mississippians turned out in strong numbers yesterday, and the race for U.S. Senate remains extremely close as counting continues. With the vast majority of Election Day ballots reported, the margin is measured in just dozens of votes," Monssen wrote. "We remain confident that when every legally cast vote is fully and accurately counted, Mississippians will have reelected Cindy Hyde-Smith."

Colom, at a Nov. 4 news conference outside his Jackson headquarters, said the exact opposite.

"I'm confident once the process lays out, where we are, where the ballots are, we're going to win," Colom said. "And it's because the people of Mississippi turned out in historic numbers to make this race possible in a midterm election … unlike all the people across the country that might be surprised, our campaign, our volunteers, the people of Mississippi are not surprised."

The district attorney said that his campaign has lawyers and volunteers in each county to monitor the election process and ensure that all votes would be counted.

"The bottom line is, this is the beginning of a new direction for our state. We are going to win this," Colom said. "We have already showed the country that Mississippi matters, y'all. Now we're just going to finish the job by doing our part to protect the process. … I'm very confident about where we are, and I'm very confident that we're going to win."

Colom made several references to "protecting the process" in his news conference, echoing Election Day concerns from Mississippi Democratic Party Chair Cheikh Taylor. The chair told the Clarion Ledger at Colom's watch party that the party received around 400 calls about voting issues over the course of the day.

Republican Party Chair Mike Hurst told the Clarion Ledger before the election that Republican voters, particularly those in precincts that usually support the Democratic candidate, would be "on guard and ready to go for any funny business."

It is unclear whether either party chair has officially filed a complaint with the Secretary of State's office or plans to question the integrity of the election.

Will there be a runoff or recount in the US Senate race for Mississippi?

Mississippi law does not allow for runoffs in federal general elections, regardless of how close the final count is. It is also the only state in the country without a recount provision in its laws.

Some states have automatic recounts triggered by results within a certain margin. Mississippi's standing as of noon on Nov. 4 puts it within the margin in all of those states.

That doesn't mean that a losing candidate has no means to contest the outcome of the election. They can challenge the decisions to include or exclude certain ballots under federal or state law, which would potentially change the vote totals in their favor.

Though Colom said that his team has lawyers prepared to pursue election litigation if it becomes necessary, lawsuits would likely not emerge, if they do at all, until after Nov. 13.

Bea Anhuci is the state government reporter for the Clarion Ledger. She has covered Mississippi politics, including the ups and downs of the U.S. Senate race between Scott Colom and Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, since the start of 2026. Email her at [email protected].