The National Republican Senatorial Committee asked Mississippi election officials on Thursday to preserve all election documents and all provisional ballots as the state's Senate race remains too close to call.

Mississippi Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith is seeking another term in the upper chamber but trailed Democrat Scott Colom at the time of the publishing, with 96% of the vote counted, according to the Associated Press. 

Attorneys for the senator asked the election commissioners in all 82 counties to separate out the affidavit, also called provisional, ballots, document their disposition and preserve “all associated materials," according to the NRSC. 

“These measures are necessary to ensure that each affidavit ballot’s eligibility for counting and ultimate disposition can be verified,” the letter reads.

Federal law already mandates that election records be maintained in federal races for 22 months after the election.

The request comes as ballots in Mississippi can still be counted if they arrive within five days of the election and are postmarked by Election Day, which was Tuesday. Mississippi's Secretary of State said they are waiting to see whether the 3,600 outstanding ballots arrive in time. Colom only leads Hyde-Smith by just under 2,000 votes.

Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson also noted Wednesday that the ballot counting could take longer because counties have until 10 days after the election to send its certified results.

“Since Mississippi is a bottom-up state, circuit clerks and election commissioners run elections at the county level … counties have 10 days from the date of the election to submit their certified results to our office, which is November 13,” Watson said in a statement. “Until we have the certified results, the individual counties will be the best source of the latest and most up-to-date information.”

Colom's potential victory in the state would be a surprise given Mississippi's deep red history and he would be the first Democratic senator from the state since the 1980s, according to The Hill.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.