Thousands of Mississippians like Lowery — whose votes may decide a critical U.S. Senate race, in which Democrat Scott Colom holds a slim lead over Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith ® — are still waiting to have their ballots counted. That’s because of the Republican secretary of state’s contract with Experian, a global credit reporting agency whose data has been described as riddled with errors, that threw thousands of voters into “inactive” status in the months leading up to the general election.
In highly populated DeSoto County, over 15,000 people were removed as active voters in the time between the primary and general election, according to an analysis from Mississippi Today with data from the state.
Other counties with high rates of inactive voters include Jackson with 14,063 and Harrison, where Lowery votes, with 28,921. For many of these voters showing up to the polls on Tuesday, this was a shock.
My wife and I were purged from Texas voting rolls. I was able to get mine updated and fixed prior to election day. My wife had to update hers the day of. The staff at her polling place said they had around 50 people that day alone, who had been removed from the rolls and had to vote with a provisional ballot. Multiply that out and you have a good idea how hard the Rs were trying to keep people from voting.