Hinds County rejects two-thirds of affidavit ballots in Mississippi Senate race
Hinds County, a Democratic stronghold, accepted only about 34% of affidavit ballots, a rate far below the state average, as the close U.S. Senate contest between Scott Colom and Cindy Hyde-Smith continues.
Hinds County, the second-largest county in Mississippi, announced Wednesday that it accepted 817 of 2,426 affidavit (provisional) ballots cast in the recent midterm elections, a acceptance rate of roughly 34%. The county’s election commissioners said most of the rejected ballots were due to improper registration or votes cast in the wrong precinct.
The accepted ballots have not yet been counted, but they could affect the tightly contested U.S. Senate race in which Democrat Scott Colom leads incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by just over 3,000 votes.
Statewide, Secretary of State Michael Watson reported that about 76% of Mississippi’s affidavit ballots have been accepted, indicating that Hinds County’s rejection rate is significantly higher than the state average.
Jacqueline Amos, a Democratic National Committee representative in Mississippi, said the high rejection rate was not surprising, noting that many voters reported being unable to vote.
"I wasn’t surprised because, on Tuesday, there were… many phone calls from voters complaining that they could not vote," Amos told Democracy Docket.
District 1 election commissioner Kidada Brown expressed surprise at the volume of rejections, attributing many to voters casting ballots in the wrong precinct or lacking proper registration after attending voter-registration drives.
"That’s a large amount, and I’m surprised because we had a lot of people that voted in the wrong precinct," Brown said.
Mississippi’s election rules require paper registration applications to be submitted at least 30 days before an election and do not allow no-excuse mail voting, early voting, or same-day registration.
Secretary Watson also noted that 76 of the state’s 82 counties have uploaded uncertified results, with four counties reporting certified results. State law mandates that all counties certify their results by Friday. Hinds County circuit clerk Zachary Wallace said the county aims to certify its results on Wednesday.