Still Counting: Alaska and Mississippi Senate Seats, Kansas Governor and a Minnesota Recount Watch

Control of Congress is settled. The final margins are not. These races are not called by the Associated Press, so we do not call them. All counts are unofficial.

Mississippi Senate

AP count, updated 6:12 p.m. Central Wednesday, about 96% counted:

• Scott Colom (D): 464,926 votes, 49.0%
• Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R): 463,788 votes, 48.9%
• Ty Pinkins (independent): 19,934 votes, 2.1%

Colom leads by 1,138 votes. Al Jazeera, citing the Mississippi secretary of state, reports about 3,600 mail ballots still to be counted plus an unknown number of provisional (affidavit) ballots. Counties have until Nov. 13 to send certified results. Al Jazeera reports that Mississippi has no formal provision for an automatic recount, so a candidate would need a court order to seek one.

Earlier on Wednesday our scorecard showed the gap at 43 votes. It has widened since.

Alaska Senate

AP count, updated 7:13 p.m. Central Wednesday, about 75% counted:

• Mary Peltola (D): 102,962 votes, 48.2%
• Sen. Dan Sullivan (R): 102,325 votes, 47.9%
• Gerald Heikes (R): 4,846 votes, 2.3%
• Daniel J. Sullivan Jr.: 3,600 votes, 1.7%

Peltola leads by 637 votes. No candidate has a majority of first-choice votes. Alaska uses ranked-choice voting, and the state's Division of Elections has said ranked-choice results will not be published until Nov. 18, according to Al Jazeera. The AP has said most mail ballots are not expected before then.

The legal fight over the ballot is separate from the count. A federal judge dismissed a Justice Department lawsuit over the second Dan Sullivan on the ballot on Nov. 1. Alaska Public Media reports the department is appealing, and that the U.S. attorney for Alaska has opened a criminal investigation while saying he was not assuming a crime occurred. The campaigns have accused each other over the controversy. Those are claims, not findings.

Governor races

• Kansas: Cindy Holscher (D) 549,974 votes (50.3%), Ty Masterson (R) 542,929 votes (49.7%), about 99% counted, AP, updated 7:19 p.m. Central Wednesday. Holscher leads by 7,045 votes. Not called.
• Alaska: Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins (D) 103,837 votes (49.1%), Bernadette Wilson (R) 61,734 (29.2%), Dave Bronson (R) 30,003 (14.2%), Treg Taylor (R) 15,763 (7.5%), about 75% counted. Ranked-choice voting applies if no one reaches a majority of first choices. Not called.

Minnesota 1st District: recount possible

The AP has not called this race. Jake Johnson (D) leads Rep. Brad Finstad (R) by about 323 votes on unofficial results (163,056 to 162,733, per KTTC). Johnson has declared victory. Finstad's campaign told the Star Tribune a recount was likely. The margin is inside the 0.25% limit for a publicly funded recount. The State Canvassing Board certifies on Nov. 19, and a recount request would follow, up to Nov. 23 according to KTTC. As of our last check no recount had been requested. These figures are from our 5:37 p.m. Central check and may have changed.

Other House races that were open at our last full check

As of 5:37 p.m. Central Wednesday, per the AP, these were still not called (unofficial, may have changed since): Maine 2 (Paul LePage, R, 50.3%, over Matthew Dunlap, D, 49.7%); Arizona 2 (Rep. Eli Crane, R, 49.3%, over Jonathan Nez, D, 49.0%); Florida 13 (Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R) and Florida 27 (Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R); South Carolina 1 (Nancy Lacore, D, over Jenny Costa Honeycutt, R); Virginia 1 (Shannon Taylor, D, over Rep. Rob Wittman, R); North Carolina 1 (Rep. Don Davis, D, over Laurie Buckhout, R); Ohio 10; Colorado 4 and 5; Arizona 1 and 6; New York 17 and 21; Montana 1; and Alaska's at-large seat. The AP's House page showed 48 races still to be called at 10:56 p.m. Central.

Sources: AP results pages (Senate, governor, House and state pages); Al Jazeera, "What's delaying the US Senate election results in Mississippi and Alaska?" (Nov. 5); KTTC and MPR News on Minnesota's 1st District; Star Tribune; Alaska Public Media. Alaska's official results site did not load for us, so Alaska figures are AP only.