Democratic candidate Scott Colom is leading Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith with 49.04% of counted votes versus 48.85%, a margin of 1,813 votes out of 951,744 ballots counted. The result remains uncertain because an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 provisional ballots require verification and additional absentee votes may arrive until next week. A Colom victory would make him the first Black senator from Mississippi since the post-Civil War Reconstruction era and deliver a historic result in a state that has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1982. A law upheld by the Supreme Court allowing mail-in ballots postmarked on Election Day to be counted if received within five business days could also help Colom, while Hyde-Smith says remaining votes will reinforce her path to victory.
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