The news last week from the US Mid-term elections has been utterly seismic, as noted by Caron here.
But something else really big has happened which deserves separate focus.
While the party poppers were being swept up from the Democrat celebrations, officials in Mississippi were quietly and labouriously sifting through ballot papers. The vote for the state-wide US Senate post was too close to call. A real nail-biter.
NAACP’s* Legal Defense Fund website takes up the story:
Mississippi advocates and legal advisors, including the Legal Defense Fund and the Mississippi: Count Every Vote coalition, worked tirelessly all across the state to cure + ballots, raise awareness about the affidavit ballot process, and ensure that the election remained free, fair, and legitimate. And the coalition will remain vigilant throughout the certification process to make sure every vote is counted and certified.
Some political nerds were refreshing the NBC election results page several times a day. Gradually and painstakingly, Democrat Scott Colom’s vote total crawled away from that of Republican veteran senator Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Finally it has been announced that Scott Colom has won the US Senate seat for Mississippi. Currently, he has a majority of 4,669 votes, or half a percentage point.
There were previously two Black senators for Mississippi, Hiram Revels and Blanche Bruce, about 150 years ago in the reconstruction period. But they were appointed by the Mississippi State legislatures. Over on Political Wire, Taegan Goddard underscores the historic nature of this win:
Colom is the first Black U.S. senator ever elected directly by the people of Mississippi.
Consider what that means.
This is a state whose history is inseparable from slavery, Jim Crow, lynchings, segregation and the systematic use of violence to deny Black Americans the right to vote.
For generations, Mississippi’s political establishment went to extraordinary lengths to prevent precisely this from ever happening.
And there’s one other notable feature of Scott Colom’s win. Three years ago his opponent, Cindy Hyde-Smith “used her Senate power to block (him) from becoming a federal judge, citing his supposed position on transgender athletes.” Colom maintained that medical decisions made by families and doctors “should not be handled as criminal offenses,” arguing that criminalizing healthcare erodes public trust.
* NAACP = National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People.
+ Ballot curing “(ballot cure) is the process of correcting minor errors, typically involving voter identification issues with mail-in or absentee ballots.” Wikipedia.