Updated November 7, 2026, 12:33 p.m. ET
Almost all major midterm elections have been called. That’s not the case in Mississippi and Alaska, where the ballots that will determine two Senate seats are still being sorted, scrutinized and, increasingly, contested.
It also won’t change who controls the chamber. Democrats claimed the Senate on election night — part of a surge that left them with 54 seats to Republicans’ 44. What remains to be resolved is the size of that majority and how much margin Democrats will have in the final two years of President Donald Trump’s term.
In Mississippi, Scott Colom, the district attorney, leads Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, the Republican incumbent, by some 2,500 votes – or less than a percentage point – according to the Associated Press, which did not call the race. A Democratic victory would be the party’s first Senate victory in Mississippi since 1982 and would make Colom the state’s first black senator since Reconstruction.
A lot depends on the ballots that no one has fully counted. Thousands of voters cast ballots by affidavit, the state’s version of provisional ballots, because they didn’t have a photo ID or were missing from their precinct’s rolls. Republicans estimate that about 20,000 ballots remain outstanding and voters have until November 10 to resolve their concerns.
So far, Colom has outperformed among affidavit votes, even in Hyde-Smith counties, according to a Mississippi Free Press analysis of the few counties that have finished counting them. But the Republicans are preparing to challenge them.
Hyde-Smith’s campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee have asked officials in all 82 counties to set aside the affidavit ballots and preserve them, a usual prelude to a court battle.
At a news conference, Mississippi Republican Party Chairman Michael Hurst said his party had sent more than 50 attorneys and volunteer observers to counting sites and pledged to “fight like hell” to ensure compliance with the law, while emphasizing that “there is no election to deny here.”
Colom’s campaign urged counties to refuse, with his attorney arguing that voiding already-processed ballots would itself be a violation of state law. And because Mississippi only allows challenges on a county-by-county basis, any legal battle could spread across dozens of courthouses.
Legal battles loom in Alaska
In Alaska, legal skirmishes began long before anyone voted.
Mary Peltola, a Democrat and former congresswoman, led Sen. Dan Sullivan, the Republican incumbent, by 637 votes, with about three-quarters of the ballots counted, according to the latest AP tally. For months, a fourth candidate has been hanging in the race, a retired teacher also named Dan Sullivan. Republicans warned his name would confuse voters, but the Alaska Supreme Court refused to remove him.
The Justice Department then filed a lawsuit to block certification if the incumbent lost. A federal judge threw out the case two days before the Nov. 3 election, although the department promised to appeal.
On November 6, the Peltola campaign opened its own front. The main group supporting her has sued the state Division of Elections to obtain the names of voters whose mail-in ballots have so far been rejected, saying she wants to protect her supporters from being wrongly disenfranchised.
The state refused, arguing that the records are preliminary and long kept confidential, and releasing them now could slow down the count. “The Division has protected this information for years and will ask the court to protect it as well,” the state Law Department said in a statement, according to Reuters.
Alaska’s final response is still more than a week away. Mail-in ballots can arrive as late as Nov. 18, the same day the state plans to conduct its preferential counting, since no candidate received 50%. This count will redistribute the votes of late candidates, including the other Dan Sullivan.
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