Washington (United States) (AFP) - The process of counting thousands of remaining votes continues in Mississippi on Friday, three days after the Democrats seized control of both chambers of Congress, and amid intense competition for the Senate seat in the state.
Published on: 06/11/2026 - 19:39
The results show Democrat Scott Collum leading by about 2,000 votes over current Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, after 96% of the votes were counted.
The delay in announcing the results is due to Mississippi's election rules, which give local officials several days to count and process mail-in and provisional ballots.
State Secretary of State Michael Watson said Thursday that about 3,300 absentee ballots had not yet been counted.
The number of provisional ballots that have not yet been counted is estimated at between 12,000 and 20,000.
The ballots belong to voters whose eligibility could not be verified at polling stations, either due to failure to present identification documents or discrepancies in voter registration records.
Voters have until Tuesday to address some issues with their ballot. Postal ballots postmarked on Election Day are accepted if they arrive by that day. As for Mississippi's 82 counties, they have until November 13 to approve the final results.
The intense competition for congressional seats prompted both parties to seek the help of lawyers, as Republicans demanded that local officials preserve records of the remaining votes in anticipation of possible legal challenges.
Cullum's victory represents a surprise in a state that Trump won by more than 20 percentage points in the 2024 elections.
Mississippi has not elected a Democratic senator since 1982, while Cullum will become the first black member to represent the state in the Senate since the Reconstruction era that followed the American Civil War.
However, the importance of the race declined in the United States after the Democrats secured control of both chambers of Congress, without the need for the Mississippi result to decide the majority in the Senate.
The race for the Alaska Senate seat has not yet been decided, with Democrat Mary Peltola narrowly ahead of incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan.
© 2026 AFP
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