The county election officials under whose watch ballot shortages hampered voting in Mississippi’s largest county said technical mishaps and insufficient training were to blame for election day chaos in November.
At a meeting with representatives from a coalition of statewide and national civil rights organizations, Hinds County election commissioners said Monday that their mishaps caused several polling locations in Hinds County to run out of ballots. They admitted to sharing the wrong voter data with the company they contracted to print ballots, which directly led to the ballot shortages.
“Complete human error. I hate that the citizens of Hinds County had to experience that,” said Commissioner RaToya Gilmer McGee.
But the commissioners, all Democrats, also pointed to what they said was inadequate guidance from Secretary of State Michael Watson, a Republican. The commissioners said they had to rely on a training manual written for election officials across the state.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
But the commissioners, all Democrats, also pointed to what they said was inadequate guidance from Secretary of State Michael Watson, a Republican.
People waited up to two hours to vote as election officials made frantic trips to office supply stores so they could print ballots and deliver them to polling places.
Derrick Johnson, the national president of the NAACP who attended college in Jackson, said he hoped the episode wouldn’t depress voter turnout in future elections.
In a statement after the meeting, Secretary of State Michael Watson said his office was open to providing more training, but that Hinds County was unique in its election management troubles.
Heading into the 2023 election, all 82 counties received the same training and resources from our office,” Watson told The Associated Press.
The five-member Commission agreed to Monday’s meeting after the civil rights coalition said they had failed to provide enough information about what went wrong on election day.
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