No. Mississippi has never passed a recount law — there is no automatic recount when a race is close, and no recount a candidate can request, however small the margin. The Mississippi Secretary of State's office confirmed to ABC News that the state has no recount process at all. Under Mississippi law, a recount can be ordered only by a court, which is why the Senate race between Democrat Scott Colom and Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, still uncalled three days after Election Day, is already a fight between lawyers instead of election officials.
The race that exposed the gap could hardly be closer. The Associated Press tally on Friday put Colom ahead of Hyde-Smith by 2,498 votes — 467,846 to 465,348 — with an estimated 96.9 percent of the vote counted and the race still too early to call. What remains is bigger than the margin: monitoring attorney Lisa Ross put outstanding affidavit ballots at 14,000 to 18,000 statewide, Mississippi Today reported, and Mississippi Republican Party chairman Mike Hurst put all outstanding ballots at up to 20,000. Affidavit ballots are Mississippi's provisional ballots, cast by voters who had no photo ID or were not listed in the poll book; voters who lacked ID have until November 10 to show it, mail ballots postmarked by Election Day can arrive through the same day, and counties must certify their results by November 13.
Both campaigns are already lawyering the pile of uncounted ballots. On Thursday, lawyers from Lex Politica for the Hyde-Smith campaign and the National Republican Senatorial Committee told all 82 counties to keep every affidavit ballot separate from regular and absentee ballots and preserve the records. Colom's lawyers at Elias Law Group answered Thursday night, calling the demand "unlawful and extraordinary" and warning counties not to follow it. Their attorney, Jacquelyn Lopez, wrote that separating accepted ballots would endanger the secret ballot by making it possible to link a voter to their vote.
"Hyde-Smith cites no legal authority whatsoever. That is because there is no legal authority for that demand." — Jacquelyn Lopez, Elias Law Group, counsel to Scott Colom for Senate, in a letter to Mississippi's 82 counties, November 5, 2026
So what can the losing candidate actually do? Election law professor Derek Muller of Notre Dame, cited by Democracy Docket, points to the one remedy that exists: sue over specific ballots — challenge decisions to include or exclude particular affidavit or mail ballots in court, where a ruling can move the totals. After certification, a campaign can also examine county ballot boxes. And above the state courts sits the U.S. Senate itself: Article I, Section 5 of the Constitution makes each chamber the judge of the elections and returns of its own members, so a dispute this close could ultimately be settled in Washington. "In some states, a really close election automatically triggers a recount. That's not true in Mississippi," University of Mississippi law professor Ronald Rychlak told The Hill's wire. "A candidate does not have an automatic right to a recount, even if they offer to pay for it in Mississippi."
The stakes reach well past one seat. Mississippi has not sent a Democrat to the Senate since John Stennis was re-elected in 1982, and Colom would be the first Black senator Mississippi voters have ever chosen at the ballot box. His win would also widen the new Democratic Senate majority won on Tuesday. But first, every lawful ballot has to survive the count — and in the only state with no recount law, the count itself is the whole ballgame. Colom said it himself on election night: "We are going to make sure every single vote has been counted, and I am confident we will ultimately flip this seat."