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It's Not Over: Days After Election, These Races Are Still Undecided

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams addresses supporters at an election watch party on Tuesday. Abrams has not conceded to her Republican opponent, Brian Kemp, contending there are thousands of absentee and provisional ballots yet to be counted.
Jessica McGowan
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Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams addresses supporters at an election watch party on Tuesday. Abrams has not conceded to her Republican opponent, Brian Kemp, contending there are thousands of absentee and provisional ballots yet to be counted.

Updated on Nov. 11 at 2:20 p.m. ET

It's five days since the midterm elections, and the outcomes of a number of races remain in question. Several House races and a three Senate seats are still up in the air, along with two high-profile governors' races in Georgia and Florida.

In the Georgia governor race, Republican Brian Kemp holds a narrow lead over Stacey Abrams. Kemp has declared victory, but Abrams has not conceded, contending there are thousands of absentee and provisional ballots yet to be counted. As of Sunday afternoon, Kemp is up by 1.5 percentage points.

The Florida governor race is so close that it has triggered a recount. In the unofficial tally, Republican Ron DeSantis leads Democrat Andrew Gillum by just .41 percentage points. Gillum originally conceded, but as the race tightened he asked for every vote to be counted.

Florida's U.S. Senate race is also going to a recount, as Republican Rick Scott has very a narrow lead over Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson. That race's margin is currently just 0.15 percentage points.

The Arizona Senate race is also up in the air. There, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema has taken a lead over Republican Martha McSally as more votes have been counted. Sinema by 1.43 percentage points.

Republican Martha McSally speaks at a rally for President Trump on Oct. 19 in Mesa, Ariz. McSally is in a tight Senate race with Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.
Ralph Freso / Getty Images
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Republican Martha McSally speaks at a rally for President Trump on Oct. 19 in Mesa, Ariz. McSally is in a tight Senate race with Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema.

The special election for a Senate seat in Mississippi goes to an automatic runoff between the top two finishers, Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith, who was appointed to the position, and Democrat Mike Espy. That will take place on Nov. 27.

Full election results can be found here.

Democrats have picked up 32 House seats, more than enough to recapture control of that chamber. But there are still about ten undecided, competitive House races held by Republicans, and Democrats lead in four:

  • California 10, where Democrat Josh harder leads Republican Jeff Denham.
  • California 39, where Republican Young Kim leads Democrat Gil Cisneros.
  • California 45, where Republican Mimi Walters narrowly leads Democrat Katie Porter.
  • Georgia 7, where Republican Rob Woodall narrowly leads Democrat Carolyn Bourdeaux.
  • Maine 2, where Republican Bruce Poliquin has a narrow lead over Democrat Jared Golden.
  • New Jersey 3, where Democrat Andy Kim has a narrow lead over Republican Tom MacArthur.
  • New York 22, where Democrat Anthony Brindisi narrowly leads Republican Claudia Tenney.
  • New York 27, where Republican Chris Collins narrowly leads Democrat Nathan McMurray.
  • Texas 23, where Republican Will Hurd has a narrow lead over Democrat Gina Ortiz Jones.
  • Utah 4, where Democrat Ben McAdams leads Republican Mia Love.
  • Maine's 2nd District race, profiled here, has one of the oddest potential outcomes — the Republican incumbent is leading, but a newly implemented way the state counts votes very well could hand the race to the Democratic challenger.

    Under Maine's unique ranked-choice voting law, if no candidate receives a majority — that is 50 percent plus one of the vote — the Maine secretary of state conducts a recount. Republican Bruce Poliquin currently leads Democrat Jared Golden by 1,910 votes with 46.2 percent of the vote. But there were also two independents in the race, Tiffany Bond and Will Hoar.

    The last-place finisher in the contest, who appears to be Hoar, will be eliminated. The second choice his voters listed on their ballots will be awarded to the respective candidates. And if that still doesn't produce a majority winner, then the third-place finisher is eliminated and the process repeats.

    Golden has said he will abide by the final results, but Poliquin didn't answer a question put to him during a debate last month about whether he would. It's possible he could decide to file a court suit to contest the process. So it may be a while before we know who will represent the voters of the largest congressional district east of the Mississippi.

    Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

    Corrected: November 8, 2018 at 12:00 AM EST
    A previous version of this story incorrectly gave Kyrsten Sinema's first name as Krysten.
    NPR News' Brian Naylor is a correspondent on the Washington Desk. In this role, he covers politics and federal agencies.
    Laurel Wamsley is a reporter for NPR's News Desk. She reports breaking news for NPR's digital coverage, newscasts, and news magazines, as well as occasional features. She was also the lead reporter for NPR's coverage of the 2019 Women's World Cup in France.