Democrats regained control of both chambers of the United States Congress in this year’s midterm elections, with a wave of victories that party leader Hakeem Jeffries likened to an “American tsunami”.
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Jeffries → regain → tsunami
But as of Wednesday night, two US Senate races remain undecided.
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races → remain → night
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we → renew → results
A cliffhanger in the southeastern state of Mississippi and a scandal-plagued Alaska race are the final Senate contests to be tallied.
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cliffhanger → plague → Mississippi
As it stands, the Democrats will usher in the 120th Congress on January 3 with a majority of at least 54 seats in the 100-member Senate.
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Democrats → stand → Senate
If they win both Mississippi and Alaska, they will need fewer Republican breakaways to avoid the filibuster, a means by which the minority party can indefinitely stall legislation in the chamber.
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party → win → chamber
Filibusters can be avoided with a 60-member vote.
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Filibusters → avoid → vote
Al Jazeera breaks it down with this brief explainer.
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Jazeera → break → explainer
The last time the state voted for a Democratic president was in 1976.
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state → vote → 1976
The last time it elected a Democrat to statewide office was more than a decade ago, in 2015.
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it → elect → 2015
But the race between incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, and her Democratic challenger, Scott Colom, proved tighter than expected.
The contest remains too close to call, with both candidates holding about 49 percent of the vote, according to The Associated Press news agency.
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candidates → prove → agency
Ninety-six percent of the ballots have been counted so far.
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percent → count → ballots
As of Wednesday night, Colom was leading Hyde-Smith by a razor-thin margin of 1,138 votes, with a few thousand provisional and mail-in absentee ballots left to be counted.
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ballots → lead → votes
Provisional ballots, also called “affidavit ballots”, are supplied to voters whose eligibility is uncertain.
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eligibility → call → voters
This can happen when a voter fails to present the appropriate identification documents at their local polling precinct.
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voter → happen → precinct
Mississippi allows 10 days for such votes to be processed.
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votes → allow → days
Mail-in ballots, meanwhile, have a window of five business days to be received after the election, according to state officials.
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ballots → mail → officials
In a statement released on Wednesday, Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson counted roughly 3,600 mail-in ballots still to be tallied, along with an “unknown” number of affidavit ballots.
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Watson → release → ballots
“Counties have 10 days from the date of the election to submit their certified results to our office, which is November 13,” Watson wrote.
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Watson → have → office
In the event of a deadlock, Mississippi is the only state in the country with no formal provision that would automatically authorise a recount.
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that → authorise → recount
The candidates would need a court order to request one.
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candidates → need → one
When will we know Alaska’s results?
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we → know → results
In the northwestern state of Alaska, the Senate race could take days or weeks to be called, owing to the state’s vast rural distances and its ranked-choice voting (RCV) system.
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race → take → distances
Democrat Mary Peltola leads incumbent Republican Dan Sullivan by a meagre 637 votes as of Wednesday night, according to The Associated Press.
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Peltola → lead → Press
The race has become one of the most closely watched in the country.
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race → become → country
Nearly a quarter of the votes remain uncounted.
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quarter → remain → votes
In Alaska, ranked-choice ballots allow voters to number the candidates in their order of preference.
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voters → rank → preference
But the system can result in multiple vote counts.
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system → result → counts
The initial count tallies the candidates who were ranked as voters’ top choice.
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who → tally → choice
If one of those candidates gets more than 50 percent of the vote, they win the election outright.
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they → get → election
If none of the candidates passes the 50-percent threshold, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated, and a new round of vote-tallying commences.
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round → pass → tallying
Supporters of the eliminated candidates see their votes redistributed to their second choice.
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votes → eliminate → choice
This process of elimination and recounting continues until one candidate ultimately wins a majority.
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candidate → continue → majority
Alaska is one of only two states in the US to employ ranked choice voting for statewide elections, and critics blame the system for the slow nature of the vote tally.
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critics → employ → tally
According to Alaska’s Division of Elections, ranked choice results will not be published until 15 days after the election, on November 18.
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results → accord → November
Two candidates named Dan Sullivan competed in the contest to represent the state.
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candidates → name → state
The other, Dan J Sullivan Jr, is a retired schoolteacher widely rumoured to have been a Democratic plant to draw votes away from the incumbent.
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other → rumour → incumbent
Trump’s Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to prevent Alaska from certifying its election results, claiming the second Sullivan amounted to an attempt to pervert voter choice.
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Sullivan → file → choice
But a federal judge on Sunday dismissed the suit.
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judge → dismiss → suit
The Department of Justice has nevertheless pledged to appeal, a prospect all the more likely if Peltola prevails in the vote count.
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Peltola → pledge → count
The Aporia
