Mississippi's Nov. 10 affidavit and mail-ballot deadlines, explained

Short answer: Mississippi's election calendar set two deadlines for Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 5 p.m., which have now passed: mailed absentee ballots postmarked by Election Day must arrive, and voters who cast an ID-related affidavit may present photo ID or a religious-objection affidavit. County returns are due Nov. 13. As of late Monday morning, NBC's AP-data page still listed the Senate race too close to call.

By Monsaur Othman · Published Nov. 8, 2026 · Updated Nov. 9, 2026, 10:45 a.m. CT

Key facts - The Mississippi Secretary of State's 2026 Elections Calendar sets Tuesday, Nov. 10, 5:00 p.m. as the voter-ID affidavit deadline (Miss. Code Ann. §23-15-573(3)(d)) and as the mailed-absentee receipt deadline, for ballots postmarked on or before Election Day (§23-15-637(1)(a)). - The SOS Oct. 26 reminders page says mail-in absentee ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 3 and received by circuit clerks by Nov. 10. - That same calendar lists Nov. 13 as the deadline for county election commissions to transmit general and special election returns, and Dec. 3 as the secretary of state's declaration of those results. - As of about 10:42 a.m. CT Monday, Nov. 9, NBC News's Mississippi Senate results page, which uses Associated Press data, still labeled the race "Too close to call." AP's own pages returned HTTP 403 to our tools. - Earlier, as of about 7:15 a.m. CT Sunday, Nov. 8, NBC News's Mississippi Senate results page, which uses Associated Press data, still labeled the race "Too close to call." VoteClock's Mississippi page listed the U.S. Senate race as "Still counting / Not called yet." AP's own uncalled-races article returned HTTP 403 to our tools. - We are not printing vote counts.

Tuesday is not a recount date, and it is not the day Mississippi certifies a U.S. Senate winner. It is the last day on the state's own calendar for two specific streams of ballots. Our uncalled-races tracker follows whether the Associated Press has projected a winner; our called-vs-certified explainer separates that news call from official results.

What deadlines fall on Tuesday, Nov. 10?

The secretary of state's 2026 Elections Calendar, last revised Sept. 8, 2026, lists two items on Nov. 10, both at 5:00 p.m.:

Mailed absentee ballots. Circuit clerks' offices "must be in actual receipt of absentee ballots returned by mail for ballots to be timely." Ballots returned by mail "must be postmarked on or before Election Day" (Miss. Code Ann. § 23-15-637(1)(a)). The SOS reminders page, published Oct. 26, 2026, says the same thing in plain language: mail-in absentee ballots "must be postmarked by November 3 (Election Day) and received by Circuit Clerk's Offices by November 10."

Voter-ID affidavit ballots. Nov. 10 at 5:00 p.m. is the "last day affidavit voters who cast an affidavit ballot by reason of voter ID may present an acceptable form of photo ID or complete an affidavit of religious objection in the Circuit Clerk's Office" (Mississippi Constitution Article 12, §249A; Miss. Code Ann. §23-15-573(3)(d)). The reminders page phrases the photo-ID piece this way: voters "who cast an affidavit ballot because they forgot their voter ID must present an acceptable form of photo ID to their Circuit Clerk's Office by November 10."

A ballot that arrives after 5 p.m. Tuesday, or an ID-related affidavit that is not cured by then under those rules, is not timely under the calendar language we opened. This page is not legal advice about any one envelope.

Who has to come back — and who does not?

Mississippi calls what many states call provisional ballots "affidavit ballots." They are not used only when someone forgets a photo ID. NPR, in a Nov. 6 report updated at 4:45 p.m. ET, explained that affidavit ballots are cast when local officials treat a voter's eligibility as questionable, and that Mississippi also requires some "inactive" voters to vote that way rather than on a regular ballot. Those are separate issues from the voter-ID cure.

The Nov. 10, 5 p.m. ID window on the calendar applies to voters who cast an affidavit by reason of voter ID — including the option to complete a religious-objection affidavit instead of showing photo ID. It does not say that every person who cast any affidavit ballot must return on Tuesday.

NPR also reported that Republican Secretary of State Michael Watson said counties run their own elections and that even his office did not know how many provisionals were left to count. He said midday Friday, Nov. 6, that more than 9,000 of them had been processed. "Until we have the certified results, the individual counties will be the best source of the latest and most up-to-date information," Watson said in a statement quoted by NPR. NPR noted that Mississippi has 82 counties and that they are not required to transmit election results to the state until the following week — language that matches the calendar's Nov. 13 county-return deadline. Campaigns and party officials have offered their own estimates of outstanding ballots; we are not repeating those figures.

What happens after Nov. 10?

The same SOS calendar lists Nov. 13 as the "Delivery of Returns": the deadline for county election commissions to transmit to the secretary of state their counties' general and special election returns, including certified recap sheets and the total number of votes cast in the county for each candidate (Miss. Code Ann. §§ 23-15-601, 23-15-603). KCRA, updated 4:25 a.m. PST Nov. 7, similarly reported that counties are not required to report certified results until 10 days after the election.

Dec. 3 appears on that calendar as the "Declaration of General/Special Election Results by Secretary of State" (Miss. Code Ann. §§ 23-15-605). We are printing that date because it is on the official calendar we opened, not because it is the same thing as an AP race call. An AP call is a news projection; the secretary's declaration is a later official step. See our certification guide.

Mississippi has no formal recount process, the Secretary of State's office told ABC News on Nov. 4 (as reported in our uncalled-races tracker).

Has AP called the Mississippi Senate race?

Update, about 7:05 a.m. CT Wednesday, Nov. 11: the Nov. 10, 5 p.m. deadlines for mailed absentee ballots and voter-ID affidavit cures have passed. The next date on the Secretary of State's calendar is Friday, Nov. 13, when county election commissions must send certified returns.

Earlier update, about 7:10 a.m. CT Tuesday, Nov. 10: we reopened the Secretary of State's 2026 Elections Calendar (last revised Sept. 8, 2026). It still sets the voter-ID affidavit deadline and the mailed-absentee receipt deadline at 5:00 p.m. today, Nov. 10, and lists Friday, Nov. 13 as the deadline for county election commissions to send their certified returns to the secretary of state.

Earlier update, about 10:45 a.m. CT Monday, Nov. 9: still no Associated Press call we could confirm. NBC News's Mississippi Senate results page, which uses AP data, still labeled the race "Too close to call" when we reopened it at about 10:42 a.m. CT (marked updated 11:42 a.m. ET). AP's own pages returned HTTP 403 to our tools. We also reopened the Secretary of State's 2026 Elections Calendar and reminders page; both still show the Nov. 10 deadlines, and the calendar still sets them at 5:00 p.m. Those deadlines are tomorrow.

Earlier update, about 7:25 a.m. CT Monday, Nov. 9: still no Associated Press call we could confirm. NBC News's Mississippi Senate results page, which uses AP data, still labeled the race "Too close to call." The Nov. 10, 5 p.m. deadlines are tomorrow. Status of the other uncalled races is in our tracker, and how a call differs from certification is in our called-vs-certified explainer.

As of about 7:15 a.m. CT Sunday, Nov. 8: we found no Associated Press call. NBC News's Mississippi Senate results page, which says its data are provided by the Associated Press and its projections come from the NBC News Decision Desk, still labeled the race "Too close to call." VoteClock listed the U.S. Senate race as "Still counting / Not called yet." The same morning, VoteClock's Alaska page said no race there had been called by AP yet, and its Kansas page listed the governor's race as still counting / not called yet.

We tried to open AP's own uncalled-races article and received HTTP 403. Sunday's call status therefore rests on those AP-data and tracker pages, not on a direct read of AP's article.

How are newsrooms describing the count?

Outlets we opened still treat the race as unresolved, while emphasizing different parts of the delay:

• NPR (Nov. 6) focused on the unknown remainder of affidavit ballots and on how decentralized Mississippi's process is.
• KCRA (updated Nov. 7) said the Mississippi and Alaska Senate races remained too close to call, with thousands of votes still to be counted, and pointed to the 10-day county-reporting window.
• Fox News (Nov. 5) treated both Senate races as still separated by thin margins days after Election Day. We are not reprinting those figures.
• The Washington Examiner (Nov. 4) framed Alaska and Mississippi as the Senate races left to be decided.

None of that coverage replaces the secretary of state's calendar. Tuesday at 5 p.m. is the next date that calendar prints for mail receipt and for voter-ID affidavit cures.

Sources

• Mississippi Secretary of State, Election Day reminders, Oct. 26, 2026
• Mississippi Secretary of State, 2026 Elections Calendar (PDF)
• NPR, Mississippi Senate affidavit ballots, updated Nov. 6
• NBC News, Mississippi Senate live results (AP data), opened Nov. 8
• VoteClock, Mississippi election results, opened Nov. 8
• KCRA, Mississippi and Alaska Senate races still too close to call, updated Nov. 7
• Fox News, Alaska and Mississippi Senate margins, Nov. 5
• Washington Examiner, Senate races left to be decided, Nov. 4

Photo: Charlie Brenner, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped to 16:9). The dome of the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson, April 2009. File photo; illustration only — not a photo of the 2026 count.

Drafted with AI assistance from primary sources. Written and edited by The Whole Read newsroom under Monsaur Othman's editorial standards. Read how we use AI, our editorial policy and our corrections policy.