A Margin of Just 65 Votes in Mississippi, Yet the State Has No Recount Process for the Senate Race

The result of the Senate race in the US state of Mississippi between Democratic challenger Scott Colom and incumbent Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith remains uncalled. On Wednesday morning, the margin between the two candidates in the race was just a few dozen votes.

While such razor-thin margins in American politics typically spark anticipation of recounts, there is no such process in Mississippi. The state's Secretary of State's Office has confirmed that the state has no formal recount process.

According to the Secretary of State's Office, candidates cannot request a recount, and a recount cannot be automatically triggered in Mississippi.

The office did share, however, that a candidate can perform a 'ballot box exam' and examine ballot materials after the election is certified. If they see issues, they can file a legal challenge, the office said.

As of Wednesday morning, with 96 percent of the expected vote in, Colom and Hyde-Smith both had 48.9 percent of the vote. Colom, with 462,857 votes, had 65 more votes than Hyde-Smith, with 462,792. Independent challenger Ty Pinkins had 19,938 votes, or 2 percent.

Mississippi allows mail ballots to arrive up to five business days after the election, according to the Secretary of State's Office, which sets that day as November 10, 2026. However, the ballots had to be postmarked on or before Election Day.

It is possible there are mail ballots or provisional ballots still left to be counted. In Mississippi, provisional ballots are called 'affidavit ballots', which allow a resident to vote even if their address cannot be found in the poll book at their precinct. It is unclear how many there may be.

Colom's campaign manager said on Tuesday night that the campaign thinks there could be around 15,000 provisional ballots left to be counted. The office of the Mississippi Secretary of State said there is no definitive number they can give.

The slim margin comes as a shock in deep-red Mississippi, which voted for President Donald Trump with 61 percent of the vote in 2024 and elected Hyde-Smith to the Senate with 54 percent of the vote in 2020, two years after she took office by appointment in 2018.

Colom is a district attorney for four counties along the Mississippi-Alabama border and a former nominee to become a US district judge. He would be Mississippi's first Black US senator since Reconstruction. Mississippi has not elected a Democrat to the US Senate since 1982.

President Donald Trump rallied with Hyde-Smith last month, attempting to shore up support for the incumbent candidate before the election.