Mississippi GOP chair estimates 20,000 ballots remain uncounted
Scott Colom holds a lead of just under 2,000 votes over Hyde-Smith and is on the verge of winning a Senate seat in Mississippi, but ballots are still being counted and the margin has not been certified. The contest has drawn national voting groups and attorneys from both parties into the state, joining local organizations that had worked to mobilize voters.
Democratic and Republican groups, including the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic election attorneys from the Elias Law Group, have deployed hundreds of volunteers and lawyers to all of the state’s 82 counties to oversee the final rounds of counting.
The counting is governed by procedures the two sides are now disputing in writing. In Mississippi, voters who cast affidavit ballots on election day because they do not have photo identification have five business days to visit their local circuit clerk’s office to present an acceptable photo ID, or to sign a religious objection affidavit. They have until 10 November to do so, the same day mail-in ballots must arrive to be counted.
Mississippi has no automatic recount law. A recount can be ordered only by a court, in response to a lawsuit brought by a political party or campaign against a county or a county election commission. State law does not establish a system for challenging ballots on a statewide scale, so any such process would run county by county.
“Mississippians did their part. Now election officials must do theirs,” Nsombi Lambright-Haynes, executive director of One Voice, a local civic organization, said in a statement. “Voters who followed the rules and were still turned away, moved to an affidavit ballot, or left off the rolls through no fault of their own deserve answers and action. We will not let administrative failures erase the voices of the people.”
On Thursday, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which represents Hyde-Smith, sent a letter to county election commissioners and circuit clerks demanding that they separate and preserve all affidavit ballots cast in the 3 November general election. “As the democratic process continues to play out, we are committed to ensuring that every single lawful ballot is accurately counted and the voices of all Mississippians are heard,” Samantha Cantrell, the NRSC’s regional press secretary, said in a statement.
Colom’s legal counsel sent its own letter to the 82 counties, their election commissioners and their circuit clerks on Thursday, saying the NRSC’s demands “have no basis in Mississippi law, and if you depart from ordinary election procedures as you have been asked to do, you will violate Mississippi voters’ rights and Mississippi election law.”
“Notwithstanding Hyde-Smith’s letter, you should therefore do as you are legally obligated to do: continue conducting this election using ordinary, lawful procedures,” the letter reads. “Do not segregate accepted affidavit ballots from other paper ballots. And certainly do not do anything that would allow a particular ballot to be traced to a particular voter, in violation of the ‘fundamental principle of the right to cast a secret ballot.’”
Colom’s campaign manager, Gerard Henderson, called the NRSC’s letter a “desperate stunt” in a statement. “We’re confident that when every lawful ballot is counted, Scott Colom will be Mississippi’s next U.S. senator,” he said.
On Friday, the NAACP sent its own letter to county election commissions in the state, calling on election officials to “strictly adhere to state law during the post-election ballot counting and certification process.” Derrick Johnson, the NAACP’s president and CEO, said in a statement: “Every voter in Mississippi deserves to have their vote counted strictly according to the law.” He added that the organization is “on the ground monitoring every stage of this post-election process in every corner of the State” and would be “watching closely to ensure election commissioners are permitted to follow every legal procedure and every ballot is accounted for free from intimidation and threats.”
Mike Hurst, chair of the Mississippi Republican Party and general counsel of the Republican National Committee, addressed reporters at a press conference outside the Hinds County courthouse in Jackson on Thursday afternoon. He said there could be approximately 20,000 outstanding ballots left to be counted.
While many have suggested those ballots would likely only further boost Colom’s lead, Hurst said: “A significant number of these, we believe, are in and remain in Republican leaning districts, precincts and counties.”
“We are firm in our conviction that if the law is and was followed, that Mississippians will have spoken clearly and unequivocally and that Senator Hyde-Smith will be re-elected to another term to represent the great state of Mississippi,” Hurst said.