This Mississippi Senate Race Is Really Making Me Nervous

2 min readC’mon, Mississippi. I mean, goddamn.Also, here's a new phrase for the shebeen to learn: "affidavit ballots." Some states call them "provisional ballots." It's how you record a vote if there is some question about your eligibility. If that question is resolved in the voter's favor, then the voter's vote counts.From the Mississippi Free Press:Affidavit ballots broke for Democrat Scott Colom by a 69 percent to 29 percent margin in the U.S. Senate race in Lafayette County, Mississippi, the home of the University of Mississippi. Overall, Colom won all votes cast there against incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by a far narrower 49 percent to 48 percent margin, figures that Lafayette County reported today show. If Colom’s affidavit vote margins similarly exceed his overall vote margins in other counties across the state, it would make it hard for Hyde-Smith to regain a lead.And, to the surprise of absolutely nobody, the lawyers have swooped in.Lawyers for Democrat Scott Colom are warning county election commissioners and circuit clerks across Mississippi that a demand from the National Republican Senatorial Committee to segregate affidavit ballots from other ballots “will violate Mississippi voters’ rights and Mississippi election law.” The back-and-forth comes as Colom leads incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by 1,882 votes in Mississippi’s U.S. Senate race.“Earlier this afternoon, you received a letter from counsel to Cindy Hyde-Smith for U.S. Senate, demanding that you take unlawful and extraordinary measures in handling affidavit ballots in the U.S. Senate race,” the letter from the Elias Law Group says. “… Hyde-Smith cites no legal authority whatsoever in demanding that affidavit ballots, once processed and accepted, be maintained separately from regular and absentee ballots. That is because there is no legal authority for that demand.” The letter notes that the “Mississippi Supreme Court has specifically cautioned against departures from the required counting procedures that would undermine ‘the secrecy of a voter’s ballot’ and ‘violate the fundamental principle of the right to cast a secret ballot.’”Marc Elias is going straight to heaven one day,