Mississippi lead passes 1,800 as Alaska waits for Tuesday's count

What changed since chapter two

Democrat Scott Colom's unofficial lead in Mississippi grew from 1,138 votes on Wednesday evening to 1,882 on Thursday evening, the Mississippi Free Press reported, while Alaska's first-choice margin stayed at 637. ^{[1, 8]}

NBC News listed Democrats at 54 Senate seats to 44 Republican, with Mississippi and Alaska uncalled, and 249 House seats called for Democrats to 157 for Republicans. CNN's Decision Desk projected more than 250 Democratic House seats, with more than two dozen races still to be projected. ^{[3, 4, 6]}

The record

In a Thursday afternoon update, Secretary of State Michael Watson said about 3,300 absentee mail ballots were outstanding, the Mississippi Free Press reported. He said 6,936 affidavit ballots, the state's name for provisional ballots, had been processed. NBC News showed 95.7 percent of the expected vote in and an estimated 44,000 votes remaining, and said Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith would need 51 percent of them to catch Colom. ^{[1, 2]}

County officials gave their own counts. DeSoto County had about 2,100 affidavit ballots left, with a count tentatively set for Tuesday 10 November after 6 p.m., and Rankin County had received 1,667 that commissioners had not yet sorted. In Lafayette County, affidavit ballots went to Colom 69 percent to 29 percent, the Free Press reported. ^[1]

The National Republican Senatorial Committee demanded that counties set affidavit ballots apart and keep them, and lawyers for Colom replied that the demand cites no legal authority. Mississippi Republican Party chairman Mike Hurst said the party would 'fight like hell' to ensure all legal votes were cast and could file court challenges 'if and when' evidence turns up. He added that state law currently gives the party nothing to do. ^[1]

In Alaska, Newsweek gave Thursday's unofficial first-choice count as 102,962 for Democrat Mary Peltola and 102,325 for Sen. Dan Sullivan. Gerald Heikes had 4,846 and Daniel J. Sullivan Jr. had 3,600. NBC News put 74.1 percent of the expected vote in and an estimated 75,000 votes remaining. ^{[8, 5]}

Newsweek reported that President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social that the votes for the second Sullivan and Heikes should be 'immediately given to the REAL Dan Sullivan, and the Election is over.' Jeff Feldman, a University of Washington law professor, told Newsweek that no mechanism allows it: 'Alaska law is crystal clear on the proper procedure for tabulating votes.' ^[8]

Who it reaches

Nvidia (NVDA) is adjacent: Fox Business and NBC News named it among the chip companies hit on Thursday 5 November. Constellation Energy (CEG) is adjacent: Fox Business listed it among the power suppliers to AI data centers caught in the selloff. CNN wrote that Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa campaigned on a temporary data center moratorium, and NBC News wrote that hundreds of candidates who pledged to rein in data centers were elected. ^{[10, 13, 6]}

Jeffries vowed on Tuesday night to lower living costs and hold the administration accountable, amNY reported. The AP reported that Democrats' first-100-hours plans include votes on Affordable Care Act credits, Medicaid cuts, tariffs and the Iran war, and Schumer named high costs first and then investigating the administration. STAT wrote on Wednesday 4 November that any health bill this year would almost certainly ride on the government funding bill. ^{[14, 17]}

Where the sources disagree

On Thursday morning the Associated Press had Colom ahead by 1,138 votes and Decision Desk HQ by 1,818, the Free Press reported. CNN carried Republicans' estimate of as many as 20,000 uncounted Mississippi ballots, while Watson's office listed 3,300 mail ballots outstanding. The counts measure different things, and no source gives one total. ^{[1, 6]}

The House tally differs by outlet: CNN projected more than 250 Democratic seats and NBC News 249, with NBC's estimate of the final total at 259. On the selloff, CNN and NBC News led with the election, while Fox Business quoted analysts who added debt, heavy investor positioning in chip shares and weak tech earnings. Altimeter Capital's Brad Gerstner called fears of a broad halt to AI infrastructure exaggerated, the outlet reported. ^{[6, 4, 11, 12]}

What settles it next

Mississippi's photo ID and mail ballot deadline is 5 p.m. on Tuesday 10 November. County returns are due to the secretary of state by Friday 13 November, and the state declares results on Thursday 3 December. House Republicans hold leadership elections on Tuesday 10 November, with Speaker Johnson stepping aside; Scalise and Jordan plan to run, KOMO wrote, citing Fox News. ^{[9, 15, 16]}

Alaska's Division of Elections counts early votes and starts on questioned ballots on Tuesday 10 November, and absentee ballots can arrive through Friday 13 November inside the U.S. and Wednesday 18 November from overseas. The ranked-choice tally is set for Wednesday 18 November and certification is targeted for Wednesday 25 November. ^{[7, 8]}

Congress's lame-duck session begins the following week, STAT wrote, and funding runs out on Friday 11 December. WilmerHale wrote before the election that a Republican loss would raise pressure to act before January, including on a debt-limit increase. ^{[17, 18]}