Chamber control is settled. The margin is not. Democrats will enter the next Congress with at least 54 Senate seats after Tuesday’s midterms, Al Jazeera reported with the Associated Press, yet Mississippi and Alaska remained uncalled into Thursday night — and the remaining House map is still moving as counties finish mail and provisional counts.

Mississippi is the tighter clock. Democrat Scott Colom led Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by 1,138 votes with about 96% counted and both candidates near 49%, Al Jazeera and AP said. Secretary of State Michael Watson put roughly 3,600 mail ballots still outstanding, plus an unknown number of affidavit (provisional) ballots. State rules give mail ballots five business days to arrive after Election Day and give counties 10 days from Election Day — until Nov. 13 — to submit certified results. Mississippi has no automatic recount; a challenger would need a court order. U.S. News noted the same Nov. 13 county deadline and that the secretary of state must declare results by Dec. 3.

Alaska is slower by design. Democrat Mary Peltola led Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan by about 637 votes with roughly 74% counted, still short of 50% for either candidate. Under state law, if no one clears a majority of first-choice votes, ranked-choice tabulation begins on Nov. 18 — 15 days after the election — with a Nov. 25 target for confirming results, U.S. News and Al Jazeera reported. A second candidate also named Dan Sullivan complicated the ballot; a federal judge dismissed a Justice Department suit seeking to block certification, though the department said it would appeal.

The House backlog is shrinking but not gone. U.S. News counted 35 of 435 House seats still uncalled as of Thursday afternoon, including tight contests in Colorado’s 4th, Tennessee’s 4th, Minnesota’s 1st and Ohio’s 10th. NPR likewise flagged Alaska and Mississippi as the outstanding Senate races, with Alaska’s ranked-choice round and Mississippi’s provisional “affidavit” ballots driving the delay. Governor races in Alaska and Kansas also remained unfinished, so statewide canvasses — not Election Night maps — now decide the last margins.

Why it matters

Field shops and election offices have shifted from turnout to curing, canvass and certification. The public calendar — Nov. 13 for Mississippi county submissions, Nov. 18 for Alaska’s ranked-choice round, Dec. 3 for Mississippi’s statewide declaration — is the reliable guide to when those Senate seats and the remaining House races become final.

Sources

• Al Jazeera / Associated Press, "What’s delaying the US Senate election results in Mississippi and Alaska?" (Nov. 5, 2026)
• U.S. News, "The Midterms Aren't Quite Over. Here's What's Still Undecided." (Nov. 5, 2026)
• NPR, "These are the races in the House and Senate that haven't been called yet" (Nov. 5, 2026)

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