Harya Tarekegn, the director of advocacy and policy at the Mississippi Center for Justice, has been receiving an error message from the Mississippi secretary of state office’s Y’all Vote tool every time she attempts to check her voter registration, even though she inputs the exact information in which it asks.
She registered to vote with her driver’s license, which has caused an issue in the system. The Y’all Vote tool asks for a person’s name, county, date of birth and the last four digits of a person’s social security number, not their driver’s license number.
When some Mississippians, like Tarekegn, type in the information, the website claims they are not registered to vote. This could be because the voter used their driver’s license number during registration, which the Y’all Vote tool does not ask for, or because the voter incorrectly entered their information.
“Any barrier, including one where it’s difficult to check your voter registration status, is just another reason that could lend itself to people not showing up to the polls,” Tarekegn told the Mississippi Free Press on Oct. 2. “So, a technology fix should be one that we’re pursuing instead of flipping it onto the community to say the community needs to know exactly how to put in their information to check their status.”
After Mississippi Free Press reporting raised alarm bells about the Y’all Vote tool on the website not displaying correct information for some voters, the Mississippi Center for Justice sent a letter on Sept. 25 to Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson. The letter asked for him to issue a public notice that some registered voters might not be able to find their registration information online and should call the office’s elections hotline number or their local circuit clerk to verify their voter registration.
The Mississippi Center for Justice wanted the secretary of state’s office to “add language to the ‘not found’ page that voters see when the system cannot locate their record.” Lastly, the center pointed out that the link for voters to find their circuit clerk’s information is broken on the “not found” page for the Y’all Vote tool.
The secretary of state’s office made the two requested changes but did not issue a public statement. The “not found” page now has the correct link to find voters’ local circuit clerk office and includes a statement that tells Mississippians to call the office’s Elections Hotline at 1-800-829-6786 if they have questions or need further assistance.
‘I Don’t See a Need to Fix a Tool That Isn’t Broken’
But Scott Crawford, a retired neuropsychologist and advocate for people with disabilities, said the updates to the website still do not solve his original problem that he told the Mississippi Free Press about on Sept. 22 that prompted the article and caused the Mississippi Center for Justice to send a letter to the secretary of state.
He followed up with the secretary of state’s office on Sept. 30, which took his information and typed it into the Y’all Vote tool. The employees, including Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson himself, had no issue pulling up Crawford’s registration.
The problem with the way Crawford was inputting the information was that he added his middle initial to the field that asks for a first name. He said he used his middle initial to register to vote since he has somewhat common first and last names.
Watson responded directly to Crawford in an Oct. 1 email, noting that the voter need not add his middle initial because the Y’all Vote tool does not ask for it. The secretary said he sees no need to “fix a tool that isn’t broken.”
“The system is quite reliable when used as intended,” Watson told Crawford in their email exchange. “You will notice there is no field for the middle initial, so when someone tries to force a middle initial that isn’t requested the system will not recognize it. It clearly says FIRST NAME and LAST NAME. Rarely do we receive a problematic call from a voter who uses it correctly, so I don’t see the need to fix a tool that isn’t broken. Granted, it’s always good to contact your local elected officials, or our office, to help walk you through the usage of the tools we provide to make sure it’s working as intended.”
After receiving Watson’s email, Crawford told the Mississippi Free Press he hoped for a more reliable system to check voter registration, noting that the system should be able to recognize his middle initial because he registered to vote with it.
The secretary of state’s office told Crawford that Mississippians trying to check their voter registration using the Y’all Vote tool to follow the instructions to the letter, which means only entering their first and last name, last four digits of their social security numbers, date of birth and the county in which they are registered to vote. The office said not to add middle names or middle initials to either the first or last name fields because an error message will pop up.
‘If I Had a Problem When I Went to Vote, What Would Have Happened?’
When most voters enter their information correctly, the screen will generate four name options with the same first and last name as the voter checking their registration, but three of them will have fake middle initials and addresses. Voters’ correct information will show their first, middle and last name with their home address.
Mary Margaret Judy, a resident of Ridgeland, Mississippi, could not get the Y’all Vote tool to pull up her voter registration information when she entered “Mary Margaret” into the first name field. Judy has a double first name and no middle name, so she also tried entering only “Mary” into the first name field to see if any records would pull up. The Y’all Vote tool said it could not find her information.
“(It) shocked me because I moved here in 1980 and I have voted since then,” she told the Mississippi Free Press on Oct. 1. “I had a change of address in maybe 1990, somewhere around then. I have voted without any problem. I think part of my problem is the double-first name because I put in ‘Mary Margaret’ because that’s my first name. And then I tried different ways, you know, like ‘Mary’ and then ‘Margaret’ as the middle, and I was not getting pulled up.”
Confused, Judy then went to the Madison County circuit clerk’s office and explained her issue. An employee at the office corrected Judy’s name issue on her voter registration, putting ‘Mary Margaret’ as her first name and afterward, she was able to find her voter registration information on the Y’all Vote tool.
“The thing that I would like to share is that people need to check before they go to the voting booth because if I had a problem when I went to vote, what would have happened?” she said. “An affidavit ballot, would I have been given that? I don’t know what they would have done, but I would have been extremely frustrated knowing that I was not able to vote on the voting machine.”
Tarekegn said Mississippians who have issues checking their voter registration should be able to call the secretary of state’s office to get direct help from an employee at the office instead of voters having to call or visit their circuit clerk’s office. The secretary of state’s “responsibility” is to ensure Mississippians can “check their voter registration status with confidence,” she explained.
“If you can go to Y’all Vote and check your voter registration status and that’s what it is supposed to be, then it should work for individuals even if they don’t know how to use it perfectly or even if they put in information that’s a little bit wrong,” Tarekegn said. “There are systems that can identify us. There is technology that can identify us even if we don’t put our information in correctly. It’s not like we’re asking for a technology fix that doesn’t exist.”
The secretary of state’s office says to contact its Elections Hotline at 1-800-829-6786 if voters have any problems checking their registration with the Y’all Vote tool.
“I would implore the secretary of state’s office to fix this issue, and even if it can’t be fixed for the 2026 elections, we have elections every year,” she added. “And in fact, Mississippi will have another election on Dec. 22 for the open seat in (Mississippi Senate) District 34, so there’s an opportunity even this year to fix the system if there is a willingness to do so.”
Hinds County Circuit Clerk Zack Wallace confirmed with the Mississippi Free Press on Oct. 2 that his office uses the Statewide Election Management System to check voters’ registration status just like the secretary of state’s office does.
Monday, Oct. 5 is the last day for Mississippians to register to vote.
The Mississippi Free Press is continuing to investigate issues Mississippians have when registering to vote and checking their registration. Please contact State Reporter Heather Harrison at heather@mississippifreepress.org if you have any issues registering to vote or checking your voter registration.
Follow the Mississippi Free Press’ Trusted Elections coverage and read past stories here.
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