Too Close to Call: Mississippi Senate Within a Few Dozen Votes, Alaska Within Hundreds, LA Mayor Race Tightens
Three of the most searched US races are still uncalled: Mississippi’s Senate race, Alaska’s Senate race and the Los Angeles mayor contest. Latest counts and dates.
Photo: Ken Lund from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA / CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Pune, 5th November 2026: Democrats have already won both chambers of Congress, but three of the most searched US races are still not decided. Here is where each stood in the latest counts published on Wednesday, US time, and when a result is likely.
Counts are changing every few hours. We will update this page as new figures come in.
Mississippi Senate: a few dozen votes apart
The race: Democrat Scott Colom against Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, with independent Ty Pinkins at about 2%.
Latest count: Shortly after midnight local time, Colom led by 28 votes, 462,779 to 462,751, according to Mississippi Today. By Wednesday morning, NBC News reported his lead at 43 votes with more than 95% counted.
What is left: Hinds County, which includes the capital Jackson, paused counting overnight, and thousands of affidavit ballots remained statewide, the Mississippi Free Press reported. Mississippi has no runoff in general federal elections, so whoever has the most votes wins.
Why it matters: A Colom win would make him the first Democrat to win a Senate race in Mississippi since John Stennis in 1982, and the state’s first Black senator since Blanche K. Bruce in the 1870s. In 2023, Hyde-Smith blocked his nomination as a federal judge.
Alaska Senate: hundreds of votes, then ranked choice
The race: Democrat Mary Peltola against Republican Senator Dan Sullivan.
Latest count: On first-choice votes, Peltola had 102,701 (48.02%) to Sullivan’s 102,075 (47.73%), a lead of 626 votes with 394 of 401 precincts in, according to The Alaska Story. NBC News figures published the same morning had Sullivan ahead by 1,677 votes, which shows how much the count is still moving.
What is left: Mail ballots can still arrive in the coming days. If no candidate crosses 50% of first-choice votes, Alaska’s ranked-choice count decides the winner. The Division of Elections will release the ranked-choice tabulation on 18 November.
Also on the ballot: Measure 2, which would repeal ranked-choice voting and top-four primaries, was trailing 48% to 52%.
Los Angeles mayor: Nithya Raman edges ahead
The race: City councillor Nithya Raman against Mayor Karen Bass.
Latest count: Raman led 51.1% to 48.9% on Wednesday morning, ahead by about 8,658 votes out of 738,322 counted, according to the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder, as reported by Latin Times. Bass had led on election night.
What is left: About 440,000 ballots, according to NBC News. Bass needs about 52% of them to overtake Raman. California counts mail ballots for days, so a final result may take a week or more.
Why Indians are watching: Raman, 45, was born in Kerala and moved to the US at age six. If she wins, she would be the first Indian-born mayor of Los Angeles. See our list of Indian-American results in the 2026 midterms.
How close is too close?
US news organisations “call” a race only when the remaining votes cannot change the outcome. With margins this small, the official count, including provisional and late mail ballots and any recount requested by a candidate, will decide these races, not projections.
Results for all other races are in our US midterm election results page.
Frequently asked questions
Who is winning the Mississippi Senate race?
Democrat Scott Colom led Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by a few dozen votes out of nearly a million on Wednesday, and the race was uncalled.
When will the Alaska Senate result be known?
If no one passes 50% of first-choice votes, the ranked-choice tabulation will be released on 18 November.
Is Nithya Raman winning the LA mayor race?
She led Mayor Karen Bass 51.1% to 48.9% on Wednesday morning, with about 440,000 ballots still to count.
