The Hinds County Election Commission is working to avoid a repeat of last year’s ballot shortages with extensive poll worker training and an abundant supply of ballots for the Nov. 5 election.
In an interview with the Mississippi Free Press, Hinds County District 5 Election Commissioner Shirley Varnado said officials decided additional preparation was necessary after the debacle during the 2023 state elections left some unable to vote for hours. Voting-rights advocates from across the country responded with demands for answers and action to circumvent similar problems in the future.
“As a result of the issues that happened last year, we’re ordering 100% of the ballots,” Varnado said on Oct. 11. “The secretary of state’s office requires that you order at least 60%. We’re ordering 100%. That’s a ballot for every voter.”
Since Sept. 1, the commission has trained poll workers on accommodating voters with disabilities, curbside voting, questions poll watchers may ask and paying attention to different ballot-style options for the county’s split precincts. A split precinct is a location that serves as the polling place for voters from multiple precinct districts.
This year there are 11 Hinds County polling locations where—because of how the districts are drawn—voters will receive a different ballot depending on where they live, Varnado explained during an Oct. 19 poll-worker training.
In addition to those measures, the commission will also have extra printing supplies on hand to print supplemental ballots, if needed. “We should never have that issue again,” the commissioner told the Mississippi Free Press.
Ballot Shortages Led to Confusion at Precincts
At least nine voting precincts across Hinds County ran out of ballots on Election Day on Nov. 7, 2023, leading to confusion and long lines. Hinds County, which includes the capital city of Jackson, is the largest county in Mississippi and has an over 83% Black population.
Voting-rights advocates grilled the Hinds County Election Commission for weeks, demanding answers for why there were not enough ballots on Election Day.
“In order for us to really understand what happened, we need some information from the election commissioners and circuit clerk about why the ballot shortages happened. What were the issues with printing? What caused the confusion?” Amir Badat, an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, told the Mississippi Free Press on Dec. 7, 2023.
Election Commissioner Shirley Varnado previously said that the county had experienced an unexpectedly large turnout in an interview with WLBT on Nov. 7, 20223.
After officials counted all the voters, however, data revealed that fewer people had turned out to vote for governor in 2023 than in the previous gubernatorial race in 2019.
While it is unclear how many voters may have left precincts without voting because of the shortages, the incident did lead Hinds County Chancery Judge Dewayne Thomas to order precincts to stay open an hour later than normal to give voters additional time to cast ballots.
The incident also caught the attention of Congress.
On Dec. 5, 2023, U.S. House Committee on House Administration Chairman Bryan Steil, a Wisconsin Republican, wrote to the Secretary of State’s office and the Hinds County Election Commission seeking an explanation from the Commission on the shortage, information on any procedures they would put in place to avoid a repeat of the incident and their plan to restore voter confidence.
“Although a court order allowed polls to remain open to give voters additional time to vote, some voters may still not have been able to vote. This is completely unacceptable and does not inspire Americans’ confidence in our nation’s elections,” Steil’s letter stated.
On Dec. 18, while a coalition of voting rights advocates listened, former Hinds County Election Commissioner for District 2 RaToya Gilmer McGee explained that confusion over split precincts and a commissioner’s mistaken decision to order the wrong number of ballots led to the shortage.
“(It was) complete human error,” McGee said. “We hate that the citizens of Hinds County experienced that.”
Secretary Of State Office Responds
After the Nov. 7, 2023, ballot shortages at some Hinds County voting precincts, Secretary of State Michael Watson took to social media to address the debacle.
“The Hinds (County) Election Commission had the same access to the training and materials received by the other 81 counties,” Watson wrote on Nov. 11, 2023. “The HCEC has owned their mistake. They didn’t prepare the proper number of ballots for each ballot style needed. We’ll meet with them soon to get the details.”
Assistant Communications Director for the Secretary of State Elizabeth Johnson told the Mississippi Free Press earlier this month that the secretary of state’s office “continues to have regular communication with all election officials, including the Hinds County Election Commissioners, through the 2024 election cycle.”
“Whether it is on our weekly conference calls with election officials or more specific one on one communications, we continue to provide guidance and information on election-related issues to our local election officials,” she said.
Johnson added that Watson invited Hinds County election commissioners to the secretary of state’s office after the 2023 debacle to discuss what additional training Hinds County officials may need. She said “tweaks were made in (the Mississippi Statewide Election Management System) to act as an additional backstop to assist Hinds County in future determinations of the proper number of ballots needed for each election.”
Mississippians will vote for presidential, congressional, judicial and regional offices on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. Any eligible registered voter who registered to vote in person by Oct. 7 or had their voter registration application postmarked by Oct. 7 can cast a ballot in the general election.
Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Contact your local circuit clerk or election commissioners for polling place information. Voters must bring an accepted form of photo ID to the polls; if a voter does not have an accepted form of photo ID, they can get a free voter ID from their local circuit clerk before Election Day. For more information, visit sos.ms.gov/yall-vote.
For more on elections and voting, visit the Mississippi Free Press Voting 2024 page.
