Mississippi Senate Race Down to 43 Votes, Still Uncalled

Mississippi's Senate race sat at a near tie on Wednesday morning, with Democrat Scott Colom leading Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by 43 votes out of more than 945,000 cast. The Associated Press count showed Colom with 462,821 votes and Hyde-Smith with 462,778, with 99.83 percent of precincts reporting and an estimated 95.6 percent of the vote counted. The AP listed the race as too early to call.

Independent Ty Pinkins took 19,935 votes, a total far larger than the gap between the two main candidates. The Wall Street Journal, in its list of races still being watched, put Colom's lead at fewer than 50 votes with about 96 percent of the expected vote counted. USA Today reported the same picture in its live election coverage, noting that no election forecaster had expected the race to be this close. The Cook Political Report had rated the seat as likely Republican before election day.

A lead measured in dozens of votes

Colom, a district attorney, moved in front shortly after midnight. The Mississippi Independent reported that at 12:05 a.m. Central time he led by 28 votes, 462,779 to 462,751, with each candidate at 48.9 percent. By the count reported at 3 a.m. Central time, his lead stood at 43 votes. In Hinds County, the state's most populous county and home to Jackson, Colom had 61,793 votes to Hyde-Smith's 14,702, the Mississippi Independent reported.

Neither candidate claimed victory overnight. Hyde-Smith told supporters she was in a good position but wanted to wait for all the votes to be counted. Colom told his supporters he believed Mississippi was about to show the country something.

Why it matters

If Colom's lead holds, he would be the first Democrat to win a Senate race in Mississippi since John Stennis in 1982, the Mississippi Independent reported. The result would also widen the Democratic Senate majority that the party had already secured on Tuesday night, when it won control of both chambers of Congress. A seat rated as safely Republican at the start of the cycle ending the night 43 votes apart is, on its own, a measure of how far the Democratic wave reached.

What happens next

Thousands of affidavit ballots, cast by voters whose eligibility had to be checked before their votes could be added, are still being processed, and the review could take up to five days, JFeed reported. There is no runoff in this race: the top vote getter wins the seat. Mississippi does not hold automatic recounts, and candidates cannot request one. A recount is possible only if a judge orders it, USA Today reported. With a margin this small, the losing campaign's next move may be in court rather than at a county courthouse.