No one knows how many ballots are outstanding in Mississippi's Senate race
Mississippi's Senate race remains too close to call with significant uncertainty regarding the number of outstanding provisional and absentee ballots. Experts criticize the state's decentralized and slow election administration process for the lack of transparency.
Why it matters
The lack of clear data in a high-stakes election raises concerns about public trust in democratic processes and administrative efficiency.
In Mississippi's too-close-to-call U.S. Senate race, every ballot matters.
But no one can say for sure how many ballots there are left to count.
The razor-thin margin between incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democratic challenger Scott Colom is shining a light on an election process in Mississippi that is among the slowest and most decentralized in the country.
"Mississippi is not a model of election administration," said Michael Morse, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania who studies voting.
As of midday Friday, fewer than 2,000 votes separated the two Senate candidates. But information about exactly how many ballots were outstanding was hard to come by.
Also covering this story
4 other newsrooms covered this event. We read each version separately.
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