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National Republican Senatorial Committee asks Mississippi to preserve affidavit ballots

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Cite

Severi, M. (2026, November 5). National Republican Senatorial Committee asks Mississippi to preserve affidavit ballots. Just The News. https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/national-republican-senatorial-committee-asks-mississippi-preserve?utm_source=justthenews.com&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=external-news-aggregators

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Just The News · collected 2026-11-06 · by Misty Severi

Quick Summary

The National Republican Senatorial Committee requested Mississippi election officials on Thursday to preserve all provisional ballots and related documents from the state's closely contested Senate race between incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democrat Scott Colom. With 96% of votes counted, Colom led by less than 2,000 votes out of over 3,600 outstanding ballots that could still arrive within five days postmarked on Election Day. The committee's request aims to ensure the eligibility and proper counting of affidavit ballots as federal law requires election records be maintained for 22 months after a federal race.
Written by AI on 2026-11-06, from this article's own text only (the story summary below draws on all the coverage).

AI analysis

Story summary

As of November 6, 2026, votes are still being counted to determine who will represent Mississippi in the U.S. Senate. Democrat Scott Colom currently leads Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith by 1,724 votes but Democrats aren't taking any chances and have mobilized their support with heavyweights like Gavin Newsom and Marc Elias backing Colom's campaign. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) and Elias Law Group are on the ground observing vote counts across Mississippi to ensure all ballots are counted correctly, while Hyde-Smith’s campaign remains optimistic that outstanding votes from Republican counties will "reinforce her path to victory."

Written for “Mississippi Senate Race Too Close To Call” on 2026-11-06, grounded in this article and the 25 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 Mississippi Senate Race Too Close To Call
Politics · 26 article(s) covering the same event. Compare every outlet's account →

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 31% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Just The News
Hedges 4 of 13 claims Outlet record 95/100
CBS News
⚖️ Leans left Hedges 1 of 14 claims Outlet record 69/100
“While both articles discuss the closely contested Senate race in Mississippi, Article A reports on the initial results of the election, while Article B discusses a later request by the National Republican Senatorial Committee to preserve ballots and provisional documents due to the close result.”
TIME
⚖️ Leans left Hedges 5 of 53 claims Outlet record 59/100
“While both articles discuss the tight race between Scott Colom and Cindy Hyde-Smith, Article A describes the current state of the vote count on Wednesday evening, while Article B reports on a subsequent request by the National Republican Senatorial Committee for preservation of ballots on Thursday.”
Fox News
Hedges 4 of 23 claims Outlet record 67/100
“Article A reports on the initial vote counts of Senate races, while Article B discusses a request by the National Republican Senatorial Committee to preserve ballots due to the close race in Mississippi.”
ABC News (US)
Hedges 3 of 11 claims Outlet record 67/100
“Article A discusses the third-place candidate's statement about not spoiling the race, while Article B reports on a request by the National Republican Senatorial Committee for Mississippi to preserve election documents and provisional ballots.”
Semafor
⚖️ Leans left Hedges 1 of 8 claims Outlet record 68/100
“Article A describes Democrats' efforts and presence in Mississippi regarding vote tallying, while Article B reports on the National Republican Senatorial Committee's request to preserve election documents. These are different actions related to the same race but describe distinct events.”
Just The News
⚖️ Leans right Hedges 4 of 29 claims Outlet record 95/100
Just The News
⚖️ Leans right Hedges 4 of 29 claims Outlet record 95/100
Mother Jones
⚖️ Leans left Hedges 4 of 11 claims Outlet record 60/100
“While both articles discuss the same Senate race, Article A reports on the election results immediately after voting, while Article B describes a later development involving the National Republican Senatorial Committee requesting preservation of ballots.”
NBC News
⚖️ Leans right Hedges 0 of 3 claims Outlet record 72/100
“The articles discuss different aspects of the Senate race; Article A focuses on Colom's criticism, while Article B covers an action by the National Republican Senatorial Committee regarding ballot preservation.”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
13
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
31%
4 of 13 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Publisher signals
95/100
Just The News's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
26
Politics
Same framing elsewhere
2
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-11-06 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Just The News · 75 article(s) · 0 correction(s) detected
No corrections detected for this publisher. That may mean careful reporting, or simply that nothing has been checked.

Who wrote this

Misty Severi
26 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
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🔮 Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson also noted Wednesday that the ballot counting could take longer because counties have until 10 days after the election to send its certified results.
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Also by Misty Severi
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 26 articles by Misty Severi →

Topics

Democrat Mississippi National Republican Senatorial Committee Republican State

Subjects

Mississippi GPE · 9× Cindy Hyde-Smith PERSON · 2× Colom PERSON · 2× Democrat NORP · 2× Republican NORP · 2× Scott Colom PERSON · 2× State ORG · 2× National Republican Senatorial Committee ORG · 1× Senate ORG · 1× The National Republican Senatorial Committee ORG · 1×

Narrative

“Since Mississippi is a bottom-up state, circuit clerks and election commissioners run elections at the county level … counties have 10 days from the date of the election to submit their certified results to our office, which is November 13,” Watson said in a statement.
framing: mixed · carried by 2 article(s) · first seen 2026-11-06
🔮 Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson also noted Wednesday that the ballot counting could take longer because counties have until 10 days after the election to send its certified results.

Claims (13 extracted, 4 hedged)

National Republican Senatorial Committee asks Mississippi to preserve affidavit ballots asserted
Committee → ask → ballots
Mississippi Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith is seeking another term in the upper chamber but trailed Democrat Scott Colom at the time of the publishing, with 96% of the vote counted. asserted
% → seek → vote
The National Republican Senatorial Committee asked Mississippi election officials on Thursday to preserve all election documents and all provisional ballots as the state's Senate race remains too close to call. asserted
race → ask → documents
Mississippi Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith is seeking another term in the upper chamber but trailed Democrat Scott Colom at the time of the publishing, with 96% of the vote counted, according to the Associated Press. uncertain
% → seek → Press
Attorneys for the senator asked the election commissioners in all 82 counties to separate out the affidavit, also called provisional, ballots, document their disposition and preserve “all associated materials," according to the NRSC. “These measures are necessary to ensure that each affidavit ballot’s eligibility for counting and ultimate disposition can be verified,” the letter reads. uncertain
letter → ask → counting
Federal law already mandates that election records be maintained in federal races for 22 months after the election. asserted
records → mandate → election
The request comes as ballots in Mississippi can still be counted if they arrive within five days of the election and are postmarked by Election Day, which was Tuesday. asserted
which → come → Day
Mississippi's Secretary of State said they are waiting to see whether the 3,600 outstanding ballots arrive in time. asserted
ballots → say → time
Colom only leads Hyde-Smith by just under 2,000 votes. asserted
Colom → lead → votes
Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson also noted Wednesday that the ballot counting could take longer because counties have until 10 days after the election to send its certified results. uncertain
counties → note → results
“Since Mississippi is a bottom-up state, circuit clerks and election commissioners run elections at the county level … counties have 10 days from the date of the election to submit their certified results to our office, which is November 13,” Watson said in a statement. asserted
Watson → bottom → statement
“Until we have the certified results, the individual counties will be the best source of the latest and most up-to-date information.” asserted
counties → have → information
Colom's potential victory in the state would be a surprise given Mississippi's deep red history and he would be the first Democratic senator from the state since the 1980s, according to The Hill. uncertain
he → give → Hill
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