Key Senate, House and Gubernatorial Races Still Undecided After the Midterms

It has been more than a week since voters in the United States cast ballots in the midterm elections.

Still, Democrats’ majorities in the House of Representatives and Senate had not been finalized. More than a dozen congressional races were awaiting results.

Mississippi’s Senate seat remains too early to call

Late on Tuesday, Democrat Scott Colom was about 2,600 votes ahead of Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith in the race for the US Senate in Mississippi.

There are two key deadlines in the vote-counting process in Mississippi this week: mail-in absentee ballots must be received by Tuesday, and counties are required to submit their certified election results, including tallies of provisional ballots, to the state by Friday.

It was unclear how many ballots remained to be counted.

Unlike in some other states, Mississippi had no central vote-reporting system, and few counties released results online. Instead, journalists from The Associated Press and analysts communicated directly with each of the state’s 82 counties for the latest available information on vote counts.

The state was set to certify its results on December 3.

On Monday, Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson said about 14,200 provisional ballots had been processed, about 80 percent were accepted, and about 2,700 mail-in absentee ballots had not yet been returned.

Mississippi did not have automatic recounts or allow candidates to request recounts. Recounts in the state were held only in the event of a court order. The Associated Press may declare a winner in a race that was eligible for a recount if it could determine that the lead was too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

The vote count is ongoing in Alaska’s Senate race

Democrat Mary Peltola led Republican Senator Dan Sullivan by about 2,500 votes in Alaska’s US Senate race as of Tuesday, with an estimated 76 percent of the vote counted.

Absentee ballots were among those still being counted. The final absentee ballots mailed from outside the US were accepted as late as November 18, which was 15 days after Election Day.

Ranked-choice voting could also affect the timeline. Peltola was just over one percentage point short of the majority needed to win outright. If neither candidate won a majority, the race would proceed to ranked-choice tabulation on November 18.

The state’s “target date” for certifying the election results was November 25.

Recounts in Alaska were automatic only in the event of a tie vote. Candidates could also request a recount within five days of the state’s certification.

A dozen House races are still up in the air

In most of the US House races that had not been called, the margin between the leading candidates was less than one percentage point among votes counted, as of late Tuesday afternoon.

In North Carolina, four races remained undecided, the most of any state, and Republican incumbents were being challenged in each one. There were no automatic recounts in North Carolina, but candidates could request a recount if the margin between candidates was 1 percent or less of the total votes.

The state had to receive the recount request by noon Eastern Time (17:00 GMT) on November 17, two business days after the county canvass in the state. The state was scheduled to certify its results on November 24.

In California, only one of the remaining House races, in the 23rd District, would affect the chamber’s balance of power. The other uncalled race was between two Democrats. Mail-in ballots had to be received by Tuesday, and counties had to certify their results by December 3. The state would certify its results on December 11.

In South Carolina’s 2nd District, a recount was ongoing in the race between Republican incumbent Joe Wilson and Democrat Zyon Khalifa. Wilson led Khalifa by only about 3,000 votes in the original tally by late Tuesday afternoon, when 99 percent of the votes had been counted.

In Minnesota’s 1st District, the race was still undecided late by Tuesday, with about 300 votes separating the top two candidates and an estimated 99 percent of votes counted. Recounts were not automatic in Minnesota, but a candidate could request a publicly funded recount if the margin between the winning and losing candidates was less than 0.25 percent of the vote.

In Tennessee’s 4th District, about 300 votes lay between Democrat Victoria Broderick and Republican incumbent Scott DesJarlais as of Tuesday. In that state, recounts were held only as part of a legal challenge in the courts. There were no automatic recounts, and losing candidates could not request recounts.

Two governorships remain undecided

In the race to be Kansas’s next governor, Democratic state Senator Cindy Holscher led state Republican Senate President Ty Masterson by less than one percentage point on Tuesday.

On November 4, the state announced that a close-race audit had been triggered in six close Kansas races, including the gubernatorial race.

That process required a hand count of selected ballots, and it had to be completed before November 16, the day by which counties had to certify their results.

In the race for governor of Alaska, only about 76 percent of votes were estimated to have been counted by Tuesday.

The Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Jonathan Kreiss‑Tomkins, was leading Bernadette Wilson by about 45,000 votes, 49.6 percent to 28.9 percent. The race would advance to ranked-choice tabulation if no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote.

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