Uncalled Midterm Contests Hang on Provisional Ballots as Measures Pass

Several closely watched Senate, gubernatorial, and House contests from the 2026 midterm elections remained uncalled following Election Day as state and county election officials worked through mail-in and provisional ballots, while voters across more than three dozen states rendered verdicts on nearly 150 statewide ballot initiatives covering reproductive rights, voter identification, redistricting, and high-earner income taxes.

According to KCBS Radio and ABC7 News, The Associated Press had not yet called 59 U.S. House contests where party control was at stake, alongside key statewide races in Mississippi, Alaska, and Kansas. Note that as detailed in ABC7 News, in Mississippi's U.S. Senate race—where a Democrat has not won a Senate seat since 1982 and where President Donald Trump won 61% in 2024 after Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith won with 54% in 2020 following her 2018 appointment—Democratic challenger Scott Colom, a four-county district attorney, held 49% of the vote (464,926 votes) to Republican incumbent Hyde-Smith's 48.9% (463,788 votes) with 96% of expected votes reporting, a lead of 1,138 votes (after earlier sitting within a few dozen votes), while independent Ty Pinkins held 2.1% (19,934 votes).

Mississippi's Secretary of State Office, led by Secretary of State Michael Watson, confirmed that Mississippi has no formal or automatic recount process; instead, candidates may conduct a "ballot box exam" after the November 13 certification deadline and file a legal challenge if issues are found. Postmarked mail ballots can arrive up to five business days after the election through November 10, 2026, with Watson estimating around 3,600 outstanding mail ballots and an unknown number of provisional "affidavit ballots" (after Mississippi counted about 5,700 provisional ballots in 2022 and Colom's campaign estimated up to 15,000 provisional ballots).

In Alaska, with an estimated 74% of votes counted, Democrat Mary Peltola held a 626-vote lead over Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan, while Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins led Republican Bernadette Wilson by 20 percentage points with 49.2% in the governor's race; under Alaska law, races where no candidate exceeds 50% advance to ranked-choice tabulation. In Kansas—where Democrat Adam Hamilton became the first member of his party to win a Senate seat in nearly a century—state Sen. Cindy Holscher led Republican Senate President Ty Masterson by less than a percentage point, or 5,557 votes with an estimated 98% counted.

Nationwide Ballot Measures on Rights, Taxes, and Redistricting

Across more than three dozen states, NBC Bay Area reported that voters weighed nearly 150 ballot measures. In Nevada and Virginia, voters passed constitutional amendments enshrining abortion rights through fetal viability by margins of at least 24 percentage points (marking Nevada's second required consecutive general election approval), and Missouri voters rejected a GOP-backed measure to strip the constitutional protection added in 2024, while Idaho voters rejected a statutory fetal-viability measure. On fiscal policy, Washington state voters rejected a repeal of the state's 9.9% tax on annual income over $1 million, whereas California's Proposition 40 billionaire tax trailed by 11 points with 60% of the expected vote counted.

Voters in West Virginia, South Dakota, Kansas, Alaska, and Arkansas approved constitutional amendments affirming that only U.S. citizens can vote in state elections, while voters in Ohio, North Carolina, and Nevada added photo ID requirements for in-person voting to their state constitutions. Virginia voters enshrined the restoration of felons' voting rights upon release, Massachusetts voters rejected a top-two all-party primary, Missouri voters blocked a GOP-drawn congressional map, Maryland voters approved a constitutional amendment allowing Democrats to redraw their congressional map, and Arizona voters approved a measure requiring school sports teams to be designated based on sex assigned at birth.

Eastern Washington's 5th Congressional District Nail-Biter

In Eastern Washington, Hoodline reported that Spokane Democrat Carmela Conroy pulled within 1,857 votes of Republican incumbent Rep. Michael Baumgartner in the 5th Congressional District—a seat Republicans have held since George Nethercutt unseated Democrat Tom Foley in 1995 and which Baumgartner won in 2024 with more than 60% of the vote (a margin exceeding 84,000 votes) after taking 47% in this summer's primary, the lowest for a Republican there since 1992.

As of 8:40 p.m. on Election Day, the Washington State Standard placed Baumgartner's lead at 1,857 votes, with The Spokesman-Review showing Baumgartner at 50.3% to Conroy's 49.3% and the Tri-City Herald recording 96,663 ballots (50%) for Baumgartner to 94,806 ballots (49%) for Conroy. Conroy led in Spokane, Walla Walla, and Whitman counties, while Baumgartner led in Benton, Franklin, Yakima, Klickitat, Adams, Grant, Douglas, and Okanogan counties. Meanwhile, in the neighboring 4th Congressional District to succeed retiring Rep. Dan Newhouse, Yakima County Commissioner Amanda McKinney led John Duresky 54% to 46% (74,133 ballots to 62,569). Under Washington statute RCW 29A.60.190, county canvassing boards must complete the canvass and certify results 21 days after the general election.