The National Republican Senatorial Committee demanded election officials across all 82 Mississippi counties separate and preserve affidavit ballots as Democratic challenger Scott Colom expanded his US Senate lead over Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith to 1,813 votes. The latest Associated Press updates from counties including Lauderdale, Claiborne, Wayne, Itawamba, Lafayette, Franklin, Webster, Madison and Tallahatchie lifted Colom’s tally to about 49.0% against 48.8% for Hyde-Smith, even before populous, heavily Democratic Hinds County reported its next batch of ballots.

Up to 20,000 ballots remain uncounted statewide, consisting largely of affidavit ballots, Mississippi’s equivalent of provisional ballots, and up to 3,600 outstanding mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day that can arrive for five business days. Hyde-Smith needs more than 54% of the remaining vote to overtake Colom after winning 46% so far in the counties with uncounted ballots, and Colom’s implied odds on Kalshi and Polymarket reached 98%. Mississippi GOP Chairman Mike Hurst said outside the Hinds County Courthouse that “if the laws are followed to a T and these 20,000 outstanding ballots are counted, Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith will be reelected,” while Hyde-Smith’s campaign said “thousands of votes remain to be counted from dozens of Republican counties” and that it is prepared for “Democratic lawyers to pull out every stop.”