Try and Stop Us Digest — November 10, 2026

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Colom Up 2,574 As Mississippi's Final Ballot Deadline Arrives

Scott Colom's lead held at 2,574 votes Monday as Mississippi hits its final deadlines Tuesday, with most of the outstanding votes in Democratic-leaning counties. Washington Post / Associated Press / Mississippi Today: Scott Colom led Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by 2,574 votes in the unofficial tally on Monday. Tuesday is the deadline to count affidavit (provisional) ballots and to receive absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day. Secretary of State Michael Watson said Sunday that slightly more than 2,800 absentee ballots were still out and that about 12,767 affidavit ballots had been processed, with about 77% accepted. The largest batches of outstanding votes are in Hinds County, a Democratic stronghold around Jackson, and neighboring Holmes County, which is even bluer. Hinds County expected to finish counting affidavit ballots Monday, but its results won't be uploaded until Wednesday, when the county's Resolution Board has the final count. All 82 counties have until Friday, November 13 to certify. Mississippi has no automatic recount and does not let candidates request one, so a loser who wants to contest the result must wait for certification and then file a lawsuit. Hyde-Smith campaign manager Jake Monssen said: "Thousands of votes remain to be tabulated, and we will stay diligent until every legitimate vote has been counted."

Mississippi's voter purge put tens of thousands of voters on the inactive list and forced them to cast affidavit ballots. The Atlantic / Democracy Docket: Starting last summer, Mississippi used data from the credit-reporting agency Experian to flag voters who may have moved, left the state or died. Mississippi Today reported that at least 50,000 voters were inactivated over address issues from July 2025 to March 2026, and that the inactive list had surged to about 230,000, roughly one in nine registered voters, by Election Day. Voters who showed up and were told they weren't active had to fill out affidavit ballots. As of Monday afternoon, the state reported 14,239 affidavit ballots processed and 23% rejected. Experian told The Atlantic that the solution it provided Mississippi "was not designed or intended to validate voter records." Tonya Rivers, a Rankin County election commissioner, said that data sent to her county by the Secretary of State was wrong, that commissioners weren't consulted before Experian was added, and that some voters were given new addresses in states they said they'd never visited. She called the data "completely nowhere near correct information. Like, they're insane." Hyde-Smith's campaign has called for affidavit ballots to be separated from regular ballots, suggesting it may challenge their validity, while Colom's campaign says there is no legal basis for treating them differently.

U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche turned up in Jackson, Mississippi, on Monday, across the street from where voters have to cure their ballots. Democracy Docket: Todd Blanche, arriving with a large police escort, attended a meeting on Monday at Jackson City Hall, across from the Hinds County Courthouse, where some voters must go to cure their affidavit ballots. The roadblocks and police presence it brought could intimidate or inconvenience voters, demonstrators said, chanting "Don't interrupt our vote." Angela Grayson, director of civic engagement and voting rights for the Mississippi Black Women's Roundtable, said, "Folks don't understand what's going on and are being rerouted because of the road closures." Voters who lacked photo ID on Election Day must present an acceptable ID or sign a religious objection affidavit at their local Circuit Clerk's office by 5 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10, for their ballots to count.

Peltola's Alaska Lead Grows To 2,517 Votes As Court Fight Looms

Peltola's lead grew to 2,517 votes as her campaign's suit over rejected absentee ballots heads to a hearing Tuesday. Alaska Beacon / The Washington Sun / Bloomberg / The Hill: Peltola led Sullivan by 2,517 votes as of 4 p.m. Monday, with 48.5% of first-choice votes, after the Division of Elections added 4,947 counted ballots. Tens of thousands more absentee and early ballots are expected to be added Tuesday with Peltola’s lead modeled to continue to grow. Peltola's campaign sued the Alaska Division of Elections on Friday under the state's Public Records Act for records identifying voters whose absentee ballots were rejected, after the state denied its request Nov. 5. The campaign says it "cannot ensure that its voters' lawful votes were properly counted without knowing whose absentee ballots were rejected or questioned, and why." The Division says releasing the information "could delay the timely counting of votes." On Monday, Sullivan's campaign asked to intervene, arguing state law does not permit access to preliminary ballot information, and spokesperson Nate Adams accused Peltola of "once again attempting to rig the system in her favor." A hearing is set for Tuesday morning in Anchorage.

Voting groups asked a federal appeals court to throw out DOJ's appeal of its failed Alaska lawsuit and to consider sanctions, calling it "embarrassing and indefensible." The Washington Sun / Bloomberg: DOJ sued Alaska 10 days before the election, at Trump's request, to block certification of the Senate result if Sullivan did not win, citing the unaffiliated Daniel J. Sullivan on the ballot. A judge dismissed the case and DOJ appealed to the 9th Circuit. On Monday, the League of Women Voters of Alaska and Common Cause asked the court to affirm the dismissal, arguing that the suit rests on a federal law about voter registration and that blocking certification and probing voters' intentions "was and remains completely illegal." "The legal theory advanced by the United States here is embarrassing and indefensible," they wrote, asking the court to order DOJ's attorneys to explain why they should not be sanctioned for "pursuing a frivolous appeal."

Trump Revives Voting-Machine Conspiracy Six Days After Pledging To Accept Results

Trump asked whether the midterm was "honest" and blamed voting machines, with no evidence, days after telling the Times he was "absolutely willing" to accept the results. The New York Times On Truth Social Monday, Trump wrote, "Does anybody really believe that this 'Election' was honest," and, "How could the Polls be so wrong??? Some early voting 'dumps' were so large that it was impossible to win, no matter how many people went to vote. It's all about the machines, which are far more important than the voter!" Asked at a press conference Monday afternoon whether he believes the midterms were rigged, Trump said, "I think the numbers were terrible in terms of early votes, all those early votes." On Election Night Trump told The New York Times he was "absolutely willing" to accept the results, and the next day he said, "I'll get along probably with the Democrats unless they want to be destructive." Even conservative commentator Megyn Kelly responded to Trump’s post with two words: "Just stop." Sen. Chuck Schumer said, "Donald Trump's pathetic return to election denialism was inevitable."

Two Republican election officials warn that the GOP must confront election deniers because "election denialism isn't going away simply because Republicans lost." Washington Examiner: In an op-ed published Monday, Thomas Galvin, a Republican supervisor on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, and Gabriel Sterling, a senior fellow at the Secure Democracy Foundation and former chief operating officer for Georgia's Republican secretary of state, wrote that "a comforting narrative is taking shape" that the election-denial movement is dead, and answered, "Don't bet on it." They argue that a network of activists and influencers has built infrastructure meant to last, and that "baselessly attacking the process of election administration has become a business model" for some of them. On the ongoing counts, they wrote: "These safeguards take time. That time is a feature of secure elections, not evidence of wrongdoing." They say they can't understand why their party "isn't leading the effort to defend" election workers.

Democrats Will Oversee Elections In At Least 21 States In 2028

Starting in 2027, Democrats will run, or choose who runs, at least 21 state election offices, versus at least 17 for Republicans, after flipping at least three top election offices. Votebeat: Per AP race calls, Democrats flipped Georgia, where Penny Brown Reynolds beat Tim Fleming and will succeed Brad Raffensperger; Ohio, where Allison Russo beat Robert Sprague; and Indiana, where Beau Bayh beat Max Engling. They held Arizona (Adrian Fontes), Nevada (Francisco Aguilar) and Michigan (Garlin Gilchrist). In Texas, where the governor appoints the secretary of state, Democratic Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa could replace Republican Robert Howden. Two races, Alaska's lieutenant governor and the Kansas secretary of state, remain uncalled. Republicans won in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. Votebeat says Nebraska's Scott Petersen, who has questioned the security of voting machines and says "a lot of weird things went on" in the 2020 election, and South Dakota's Heather Baxter, who supports counting by hand, are likely to be the two farthest-right secretaries of state next year.

In The States

COLORADO — CNN projects Lauren Boebert will lose to Democrat Eileen Laubacher, days after her campaign alleged "very unusual voting patterns." CNN / Democracy Docket: CNN's Decision Desk projected Monday that Laubacher, a retired Navy rear admiral, will flip Colorado's 4th District, ending Boebert's tenure in Congress. Her campaign attorney, Scott Gessler, said Thursday that it was investigating "very unusual voting patterns" and expected a recount, but he did not say what the campaign was examining, and the campaign did not respond to Democracy Docket's request for details. Jack Todd, a spokesperson for Secretary of State Jena Griswold, told Democracy Docket that the office "has not been contacted by the Boebert campaign on this matter" and that "Colorado's elections are safe and secure." Counties have until Nov. 25 to complete canvasses and certify.

FLORIDA — A federal judge called it "stupid" for Miami-Dade's elections chief to declare Republican María Elvira Salazar the winner before a recount, but refused to remove her from overseeing it. Florida Politics: U.S. District Judge David Leibowitz denied Democrat Eliott Rodriguez's motion to remove Supervisor of Elections Alina Garcia from the recount in Florida's 27th District, where just 1,090 votes (0.44 percentage points) separated him from Salazar when he filed Friday. Rodriguez cited Garcia's Election Day statement that Salazar "is the winner, with or without a recount." Leibowitz called the comment "stupid" but ruled it did not warrant removal, and said an old photo of Garcia with Salazar did not either. Garcia told Florida Politics, "I am not recusing myself." Miami-Dade GOP Chair Kevin Cooper called the motion a "political attack aimed at undermining confidence in" her office. Rodriguez's lawyer, J.C. Planas, said the team knew the case would "be a big stretch."

GEORGIA — Georgia Democrats, who flipped the state House, have a chance to overhaul the Republican-run State Election Board, and Gov.-elect Keisha Lance Bottoms wants to eliminate it. Democracy Docket: Democrats also cut the GOP's majority in the state Senate. Four of the board's five members are Republicans. In October, the board asked DOJ to bar the state from using its voting machines, weeks before the midterms, after asking the Trump administration in September to investigate them. Member Janelle King called on DOJ last year to seize Fulton County's 2020 ballots, and the FBI cited her in its affidavit when it did so in January. Lance Bottoms' campaign proposal says the board "has become mired in political games, conspiracy theories, and partisan interference," and would replace it with an independent voting commission. Secretary of State-elect Penny Brown Reynolds also ran on reversing the board's anti-voting policies.

TEXAS — Potter County asked a federal court to dismiss a last-minute GOP lawsuit demanding a hand count of every ballot in Texas before certification. Democracy Docket: GOP attorneys filed the suit on the eve of the election, arguing that Texas's post-election audits are insufficient to detect hacking, AI tampering or errors, and seeking to block certification of federal races until all ballots are counted by hand. It was filed in Potter County, where the only federal judge is Trump appointee Matthew Kacsmaryk. The county noted that the plaintiffs admit the county official they are suing is following state law, and called the case an "eleventh-hour lawsuit" seeking "a sweeping statewide intervention into the process of certifying election results based on no more than theoretical possibility." Democracy Docket notes that Texas voters rejected Paxton and every other statewide Republican official by margins decisive enough that the candidates conceded.