Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson on Thursday posted—then deleted—a suggestion that he could be considering filing a lawsuit against a credit bureau company he hired to purge inactive voters from Mississippi’s rolls.
Watson accused Experian of “crawfishing away from Mississippi” in the post after Scott Anderson, senior account executive at Experian, issued a statement on Wednesday that said the company’s data “was not designed or intended to validate voter records.”
In the now-deleted post screen-captured by Democracy Docket, the secretary of state tagged the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, a federal agency that assists states in conducting elections, saying it had run a federally sponsored pilot program to test Experian’s method for maintaining voter rolls.
“Should we consider a lawsuit?” Watson asked the federal agency in a now-deleted post on Thursday. “They marketed a product for a specific reason and are now saying it wasn’t designed for that reason. More to come…”
In a separate social media post, he had also expressed concerns with Experian’s new claims that its data should not be used to confirm voting records.
“Yesterday, Scott Anderson from Experian issued a statement saying their data ‘was not designed or intended to validate voter records.’ Since Experian doesn’t like the heat and appears as if they will not stand by their customers, they may want to delete the below piece from their website,” Watson said, linking to a 2024 Experian blog post titled, “Case Studies: Enhancing Voter List Maintenance with Advanced Data Solutions.”
“By the way, they also partnered with the EAC to run a pilot program for the purpose of helping to clean up voter rolls. Pesky facts. I, on the other hand, stand by our decision and the work we’ve done to clean up our voter rolls,” he continued.
The secretary of state’s office signed a $50,000 contract with Experian, a credit check bureau, in 2025 to maintain the state’s voter rolls and better allowing the state to purge inactive voters. To be considered inactive under the 2023 Mississippi law, a registered voter must fail to confirm their registration status upon notice or fail to vote at least once during a period that begins in the year of a presidential preference primary and extends until the next general election for President of the United States that does not occur in the same year as the beginning of the period. Inactive voters may vote, but only with an affidavit ballot. An inactive voter is purged when they fail to update their registration information and fail to vote at least once between the time they receive notice and the second general election for federal office.
“Mississippi was never told the data was only supplemental or that it was not intended for this use,” Elizabeth Jonson, Watson’s communications director, told Democracy Docket.
The same Mississippi law prohibits election officials from purging voter rolls 90 days ahead of a federal election. Experian purged thousands of voters from June 2025 until a few months ahead of the Nov. 3, 2026, election.
DeSoto and Harrison counties saw the largest drops in eligible voters between January and September, losing about 1,750 and 1,150 active voters respectively; more than 30 Mississippi counties saw a net loss in active voters, Mississippi’s voter count data shows. Many of the voters who were purged did not find out about their inactive status until they showed up at the polls on Election Day and had to vote via affidavit ballot.
Follow the Mississippi Free Press’ coverage of the 2026 elections and read past stories here.
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