Two Senate Races Are Still Counting, and Mississippi Brought a Knife to a Recount Fight
By Dakota Jones
Desk: Political & Government, Campaigns & Elections
The election is over. The counting isn’t.
Good morning. Democrats have secured a Senate majority of at least 54 seats. The chamber’s control is settled. Two Senate races are not.
As of Wednesday night, Mississippi Democrat Scott Colom led Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith by 1,138 votes, with 96% of ballots counted. In Alaska, Democrat Mary Peltola led Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan by 637 votes, with nearly a quarter of the vote still uncounted.
Neither result has been called. And the reasons these races remain open are different: Mississippi has a narrow margin, ballots still to process, and no automatic recount provision. Alaska has a narrow margin, votes still to count, a ranked-choice tabulation scheduled for November 18, and a lawsuit the Justice Department lost but says it will appeal.
So, yes: the Senate majority is decided. The calendar, the legal process and the final margins are still in play.
ON-SCREEN RESULTS, WEDNESDAY NIGHT
| Race | Reported lead | Counting status | Next key date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mississippi Senate | Scott Colom +1,138 | 96% counted | Counties’ certification deadline: November 13 |
| Alaska Senate | Mary Peltola +637 | Nearly a quarter uncounted | Ranked-choice results: November 18 |
The figures above are the reported snapshot as of Wednesday night. They are not final results. For ongoing coverage, visit LD3’s Election Headquarters and Political & Government desk.
First, the stakes have changed
Here’s what you’ll take away from this update: these two races no longer determine which party controls the Senate. Democrats have already won a majority of at least 54 seats. The remaining contests matter for how large that majority is, for political bragging rights, and for the math around the Senate filibuster.
The filibuster is a Senate procedure that can allow a minority to delay or block legislation. Ending debate on most legislation generally requires 60 votes. That means a Senate majority of at least 54 still sits short of that threshold, and the result of these races could affect how many additional votes Democrats would need to assemble.
That is not a small consequence. It is simply a different one from deciding who holds the majority.
The distinction is worth keeping clear, especially when campaigns, party committees and fundraisers have every incentive to talk as though each remaining vote will decide the fate of the republic by lunchtime. Both parties are already raising money around the two contests. The Senate majority is no longer riding on them. The margin still matters, and so does the practical work of building a 60-vote coalition.
Democracy can be dramatic. It can also be a spreadsheet with a very slow refresh rate.
Mississippi: a 1,138-vote lead, and no automatic recount
What you’ll learn here: why a close race in Mississippi does not automatically trigger a routine recount, and what remains to be counted before counties certify their results.
Colom, a Democrat, led Hyde-Smith, a Republican incumbent and staunch ally of President Donald Trump, by 1,138 votes as of Wednesday night, according to the Associated Press. Both candidates were at about 49% of the vote, with 96% counted. NBC News independently listed the race as too close to call, showing Colom at 49.0% and Hyde-Smith at 48.9%.
Those rounded percentages make for a tidy scoreboard. The actual margin is 1,138 votes. In a contest this close, outstanding ballots matter more than a percentage point printed to one decimal place.
Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson said roughly 3,600 mail-in ballots still needed to be tallied, along with an unknown number of provisional ballots. In Mississippi, provisional ballots are also called affidavit ballots. They are used when a voter’s eligibility needs further verification, for example, if the voter does not have the required identification at the polling place.
Mail-in ballots have a five-business-day window to arrive after Election Day. Affidavit ballots have a 10-day processing window. Counties have until November 13 to submit certified results.
That gives the process a calendar. It does not provide a clean, automatic recount button.
Mississippi is the only state in the country with no formal provision automatically authorizing a recount. If a candidate wants one, the candidate would need a court order. That is the central procedural wrinkle: a close result does not, by itself, produce a standard statewide recount under Mississippi law.
The law does not declare a winner in advance, and the lack of an automatic recount provision does not mean the remaining votes can be skipped. The ordinary count and certification process still has to run. It means that any request for a recount would need to move through the courts rather than simply being triggered under an automatic state procedure.
That is a significant distinction for voters following the race. “There may be a recount” and “the state automatically conducts a recount” are not the same statement. In Mississippi, according to the reporting available, a court order would be needed.
And there is still counting to do. The roughly 3,600 mail ballots identified by Watson are not the full picture because the number of outstanding affidavit ballots is unknown. We should not pretend otherwise. The state has reported a count for one category and no exact figure for the other. Unknown means unknown, not an invitation to fill in the blank with a guess.
Why this race matters beyond the tally
For Mississippi, the possibility of a Democratic victory is striking on its own terms. The state has not elected a Democrat to statewide office since 2015. Colom’s win would also be historic: NBC News has reported he would become Mississippi’s first Black senator since Reconstruction.
Hyde-Smith is the incumbent and a staunch Trump ally. Colom’s challenge has turned what many might have expected to be a Republican stronghold into one of the country’s closest unresolved Senate contests.
But the headline should not outrun the count. As of Wednesday night, Colom led. The race remained too close to call. Thousands of ballots across different categories remained to be processed or tallied, and the certification deadline was still ahead.
That is the whole point of a count: it has to finish before anyone gets to call it finished.
Alaska: a 15-day clock, and a lawsuit on appeal watch
What you’ll learn here: why Alaska’s remaining count is not just a matter of waiting for a small stack of ballots, and how ranked-choice voting and a separate legal fight fit into the timeline.
As of Wednesday night, Peltola led Sullivan by 637 votes, according to the Associated Press. Nearly a quarter of the votes remained uncounted. That is a narrow lead in a race where the count is still incomplete.
Alaska uses ranked-choice voting, or RCV. Voters rank candidates in order of preference. The initial count looks at first-choice votes. If no candidate reaches a majority, the ranked-choice tabulation can eliminate the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes and transfer ballots according to voters’ next preferences. The process continues until a candidate has a majority.
That is why the first-place count and the final result are not necessarily the same thing in Alaska. Peltola’s lead is meaningful; it is not a final outcome. The remaining ballots still need to be counted, and voters’ rankings can matter if the contest proceeds to additional tabulation.
The Alaska Division of Elections says ranked-choice results will not be published until 15 days after the election: November 18. That date is the key calendar marker. It is not a promise that every legal question will be wrapped up by then, nor a reason to treat today’s lead as a projected win. It is when the state says the ranked-choice results are due to be published.
This is not the first time a delayed result has become a proxy fight about the rules. Alaska’s vast distances and its vote-counting schedule are part of the explanation here. The process is slower than a same-night call, but slow is not a synonym for suspect. Ballots have to be counted under the rules voters used when they cast them. The calendar, as usual, does not appear to care that television viewers would prefer a neat answer before the next commercial break.
The two Dan Sullivans
Alaska’s Senate ballot also drew scrutiny because two candidates named Dan Sullivan were in the race.
The incumbent is Dan S. Sullivan. The other candidate is Dan J. Sullivan Jr., a retired schoolteacher. Dan J. Sullivan Jr. has been widely rumored to be a Democratic plant. That is a rumor, not an established fact, and it should be described as such.
The Justice Department filed suit seeking to block Alaska from certifying the results. Its claim was that the presence of the second Sullivan perverted voter choice. A federal judge dismissed the suit on Sunday. The Justice Department has pledged to appeal.
The appeal prospect may become more likely if Peltola prevails, according to the reporting. That is not the same thing as saying an appeal has already produced a different result, or that a court has found the candidate was recruited as part of a scheme. As of this update, the important facts are straightforward: the DOJ sued, the judge dismissed the suit, and the department says it will appeal.
The ballot-name controversy also intersects with ranked-choice voting, but it does not erase the voters’ rankings. If the contest reaches a transfer round, how votes move depends on how voters ranked their choices. A name on the ballot does not tell us how voters marked their ballots. That is precisely why the count and the tabulation have to finish before anyone can claim to know the result.
Two races, two kinds of delay
The useful way to compare these contests is not to flatten them into one generic “election chaos” story. The bottlenecks are different.
- Mississippi: Colom’s lead is 1,138 votes; 96% of ballots were counted as of Wednesday night; about 3,600 mail ballots remained to be tallied, along with an unknown number of affidavit ballots. Counties have until November 13 to submit certified results. A recount is not automatically authorized by a formal state provision; a candidate would need a court order.
- Alaska: Peltola’s lead is 637 votes; nearly a quarter of ballots remained uncounted. Ranked-choice results are scheduled for November 18. Separately, a federal judge dismissed the DOJ’s suit to block certification, and the department has pledged to appeal.
In Mississippi, the immediate question is not simply “Will there be a recount?” It is also “What ballots remain, when will they be processed, and what legal route exists if a candidate challenges the result?” In Alaska, it is “What will the completed count show, and how will the ranked-choice tabulation resolve the contest?”
The distinction matters because process is not decoration. Certification, ballot review and tabulation are the steps by which the result becomes knowable. A race can be close without being fraudulent. It can be slow without being broken. And a court case can exist without proving the claim made in the filing.
That is not a defense of every rule or every institution. It is a demand that we describe what has actually happened before announcing what it means. Voters cast ballots. Local and state election officials process them. Courts decide cases before them. Parties and campaigns argue their positions. Those are separate roles; they are not interchangeable just because a tight race makes everyone impatient.
The calendar is a particularly convenient villain because it never gives interviews. But the November 13 deadline in Mississippi and the November 18 ranked-choice publication date in Alaska are not the same sort of deadline. One is the counties’ deadline to submit certified results. The other is the date Alaska’s Division of Elections says its ranked-choice results will be published. Readers should keep those descriptions attached to the dates.
What to watch next
If you are tracking these races, focus on the specific milestones rather than every fresh burst of speculation.
- Mississippi’s remaining ballots. Watch for updates on the mail-in count and affidavit ballots. The number of affidavit ballots remains unknown in the reported update, so do not assume an exact total.
- Mississippi county certifications. Counties have until November 13 to submit their certified results. That is a key deadline in the current process.
- Any court action over a recount. Mississippi’s lack of an automatic recount provision means a court order would be necessary for a recount request to proceed.
- Alaska’s completed count and ranked-choice tabulation. Nearly a quarter of votes remained uncounted, and November 18 is the scheduled publication date for ranked-choice results.
- The DOJ appeal. The suit was dismissed Sunday; the DOJ has pledged to appeal. Keep the dismissal and the promised appeal in the same sentence. One does not cancel out the other.
That last point is especially important in a political environment where a court filing can be presented as a verdict and a dismissal can be presented as the end of every possible legal step. Neither shortcut helps you understand the status. The suit was dismissed; the department has said it will appeal. We can report both without treating either as a final answer to every question about the election.
FAQ
Have Democrats secured control of the Senate?
Yes. Democrats have secured a majority of at least 54 seats. Mississippi and Alaska remain uncalled, but these two contests no longer determine which party controls the Senate.
Why do the two races still matter?
They affect the final margin and the number of votes Democrats may need to build support for measures facing the Senate’s 60-vote filibuster threshold. They also matter to the candidates, their states and the parties’ political standing.
Does Mississippi automatically recount a close Senate race?
No. Mississippi has no formal provision automatically authorizing a recount. A candidate would need a court order to request one.
How many Mississippi ballots remain?
The state’s secretary of state counted roughly 3,600 mail-in ballots still to be tallied and an unknown number of affidavit ballots. The reported information does not give an exact total for the affidavit ballots.
Has Mary Peltola won in Alaska?
No winner has been declared in the reported update. Peltola led by 637 votes as of Wednesday night, but nearly a quarter of the vote remained uncounted and ranked-choice results are scheduled for November 18.
Did a court rule that the second Dan Sullivan was a Democratic plant?
No. The Justice Department claimed the second Sullivan perverted voter choice. A federal judge dismissed the DOJ’s suit on Sunday, and the department has pledged to appeal. The claim that Dan J. Sullivan Jr. was a Democratic plant remains a widely circulated rumor, not an established fact in the reporting cited here.
Final thoughts: count the votes, then count the consequences
The national story has moved on to what a Democratic Senate majority can do. The state-level story in Mississippi and Alaska is still working through the machinery that determines who will hold two seats and how large that majority will be.
Mississippi is a close race with ballots still to process, a November 13 certification deadline and no automatic recount route. Alaska is a close race with nearly a quarter of the vote still uncounted, ranked-choice results scheduled for November 18 and an appeal promised after a judge dismissed the DOJ’s suit.
That is the update. Not a final call. Not a prediction. Not a license to turn rumors into findings. A narrow lead is a reported fact; a final result is a result officials have not yet certified or published.
You do not need to choose between urgency and accuracy. You can pay attention to every ballot, understand the rules, and insist that political claims be tied to what the count and the courts have actually established. That is less dramatic than a cable-news countdown clock. It is also how you stay informed while the clock keeps running.