As ballot count continues, U.S. Senate candidates prepare for legal challenges

As of late Friday morning, Democrat Scott Colom still leads Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith by just over 2,000 votes. Right now, Secretary of State Michael Watson estimates that there's anywhere between 12,000 to 20,000 ballots left uncounted. 

That number includes affidavit ballots. Pople who may have had issues at the polls with I.D. or who may not have shown up on voter rolls fill out a ballot and also have five business days to bring an I.D. or any other needed information to their circuit clerk's office. You can track your affidavit ballotat the Secretary of State's website. 

Concerns about voters being incorrectly taken off rolls have proliferated following changes to the state's process of reviewing rolls. A report from Mississippi Today found in some areas, the number of inactive voters was as high as one in five. 

Right now, much of the uncounted vote now seems to be in more heavily populated counties, like around the Jackson metro area. 

Both candidates are approaching the count cautiously – they have volunteers and lawyers monitoring ballot counting so it’s not happening behind closed doors. 

And, with no recounts or runoffs for U.S. Senate races, it's highly likely that there will be legal challenges. Neither Colom nor Mississippi Republican Party chairman, Mike Hurst, divulged details as to what that could look like, but both say they're preparing for litigation. 

"We were prepared for this for months," Colom told reporters on Wednesday morning. "We have an army of lawyers, we have local lawyers, we have everybody involved to make sure the process is followed according to the law."

Hurst spoke to reporters on Thursday afternoon and said they believe those remaining votes are in Republican-leaning areas and will favor Hyde-Smith. 

"We, at the Mississippi Republican Party, are going to fight like hell to make sure that every legal vote that was cast is counted and that the process to review and process and count these ballots is legal," Hurst said. "Period."

Reporters asked Hurst if he’s seen evidence of anything illegal happening; he said he couldn’t get into details but that if there is such evidence, they’ll bring it to light. 

"Every outstanding ballot, every county, every deadline, every legal option will get our full attention," Hurst said. "We will not sleep until we know that our elections are secure."

Lee Parrott, a Colom supporter, is volunteering to monitor the count. She says she's cautiously optimistic about Colom winning because of changes to Mississippi's voter roll review system.

"I think a lot of names were purged, and the system that they used to purge was questionable," Parrott said. "So I'm just not sure I trust [it]."

On Thursday, the National Republican Senatorial Committee sent letters to local election officials in all 82 counties, telling them to separate and preserve affidavit ballots. Colom’s legal team in turn sent similar letters, saying there’s no legal basis to that demand and that departing from usual election procedures would violate Mississippi law and voters' rights. 

A win by Colom would be historic. Mississippi hasn’t elected a Democratic senator since the 1980s, and an incumbent hasn’t been defeated since 1942. The state also hasn't sent an African American to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction.  

Colom met with supporters and the media on Thursday morning and thanked everyone for the work that’s gone into the campaign. 

"We had hundreds of volunteers all throughout the state doing so much to help us get to this point," Colom told reporters. "This is their victory: it's not me, it is the people of Mississippi that did it."

Hyde-Smith blocked Colom’s nomination to a federal judgeship several years ago under the Biden administration. Mississippi’s senior Senator, Republican Roger Wicker, had approved Colom. If Hyde-Smith had joined Wicker in that, she might not be facing Colom today. 

Turnout has been incredibly high – close to rivaling  the 2020 presidential election. Nearly a million votes have been counted so far. 

That turnout all comes after several Republican-led efforts that could have curtailed voting. Issues with Experian reporting and the voter rolls led to voter removals, and state Republican previously challenged Mississippi’s mail-in ballot deadline, which the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately squashed. 

Mississippi hasn’t redistricted yet, but it’s almost certain to come up in a special session.