Secretary of State Michael Watson issued a statement on Wednesday afternoon, urging people to look to local officials for information as results move upward from the county to the state level.
"There are approximately 3,600 outstanding absentee-by-mail ballots that must be received within five business days and an unknown number of affidavit ballots that will be processed within the 10-day window counties have to certify their results," Watson wrote.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Colom was just 65 votes ahead of Hyde-Smith. Per projections by NBC, there's an estimated 44,000 ballots that still need to be counted. Hyde-Smith would need to win 49% of them to catch up to or overtake Colom.
Colom spoke to supporters and the press on Wednesday morning, promising to work to protect the votes.
"We have been planning for this scenario for weeks," Colom said at his headquarters in Jackson. "We have hundreds of volunteers, we've got local lawyers that are going to be at the county meetings in each county."
"We will protect the process of this election, we'll protect the integrity of this election."
A plurality wins the race, meaning there's no runoff option. And, Mississippi does not have a processfor recounts. That means legal action could very well be on the horizon, which Colom said they're prepared for as well.
"I would hope that our junior Senator would understand the people of Mississippi have spoken," Colom said. "We're prepared to litigate, though."
"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."
Even with results incredibly tight between Colom and Hyde-Smith, Colom said he knows it'll come down to him.
"I'm confident once the process lays out, where we are, where the ballots are, we're gonna win," Colom said. "It's because the people of Mississippi turned out in historic numbers to make this race possible in a midterm election."
Hyde-Smith is confident too, though.
“I blocked Scott Colom from being a federal judge,” Hyde-Smith said at her election night watch party. “And you blocked him from being a U.S. Senator.”
“It has been such an amazing, amazing path and I think we’ve run a very good campaign.”
Her campaign manager, Jake Monssen, said in an emailed statement that the race remains "extremely close" and highlighted the thousands of ballots still to be counted.
"Our campaign is closely monitoring the remaining count," Monssen wrote. "We remain confident that when every legally cast vote is fully and accurately counted, Mississippians will have reelected Cindy Hyde-Smith."
The Jackson metro area still has a chunk of votes uncounted, with both Rankin and Hinds counties coming in at about 10% of ballots remaining to be counted as of Wednesday afternoon. In a release from the Hinds County election commission, officials said with the number of ballots, including those still coming in the mail, the process could take several days.
Their initial numbers also show that voter participation in the county exceeded the 2020 presidential election. Nearly a million votes have been recorded across the state so far, likewise putting the state midterm participation nearly on par with the 2020 turnout.
“The level of voter participation reflects the importance Hinds County residents place on exercising their right to vote. Our responsibility now is to ensure that every eligible ballot is properly reviewed, accurately counted, and included in the final certified results,” said Tony Gaylor, the Hinds County board attorney, in a statement.
