Over 230K Mississippi voters marked inactive days before midterm elections

One Voice executive director Nsombi Lambright-Haynes said they have been working to understand why voter statuses are changing, many unexpectedly.  

“Several years ago, we announced the Erased at the Polls campaign, where through our voter protection hotline, we learned of a number of voters across the state of Mississippi who had voted in recent elections,” Lambright said. “And then discovered upon trying to vote at the next election that they had been removed from the list and didn't know why."

Voters are typically marked as inactive if they do not vote during two presidential election cycles, or about eight years. Once they are moved to the inactive list, they will be purged from voter rolls altogether if they do not vote in the following two federal election cycles.

Angela English with the Rankin County NAACP also said voters who are active were removed without understanding why. Rankin county has one of the higher rates of inactive voters, with 12,959 listed at the Is My Vote Still Here? website.

“We've had voters in the past who have voted on a regular basis. And when they got to the polling place, they were told that their names were not there. And so, we want to encourage those who go before you go to make sure that you check to see that your names are there,” English said. 

She also noted that voters in the Rankin County area have had an issue with election commissioners not answering phone calls or messages from residents, and she’s concerned it could discourage voters before election day.  

“We've had problems with getting information because they don't answer the phone and they don't return emails,” English said. “And I don’t believe that voters should have to struggle to get this information.”

Other counties with some of the highest inactive voter numbers include Harrison County, DeSoto County, Jackson County and Hinds County.  

To help voters find out if they are listed as active or not, One Voice and Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign created a website for residents to check. The website searches by county and by name and gives voters information on how to fix their information.  

Danyelle Holmes with the Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign said the lists are primarily made up of voters from vulnerable communities, who already face obstacles when voting before or on election day.  

“The majority of these 230,000 people that are on this list are poor and low-income communities. Those are the ones that are mostly impacted here. Those are the one who are less likely to get to the polls,” Holmes said. “These are the kind of issues that we are coming across and the need and the importance of making sure that our people can access this information freely without any barriers in their way.” 

The list of inactive voters comes from the Secretary of State's database. Elizabeth Jonson with the Secretary of State’s office said in a written statement there are several ways voters can update their information to avoid issues at the polls.  

“First, a voter may complete and return the confirmation card mailed by the county election commission, verifying or updating their residential address. If they have moved within the county or have remained at the same address, then their registration will be updated to active status and new address within the county. Second, a voter may contact their county circuit clerk to update or confirm their voter registration information and be restored to active status.”

Voting rights attorney Amir Badat said the number of inactive voters has been on the rise in recent years. He said it’s a cause for concern not only because there are less people coming to the polls, but the method used by the state to identify inactive voters may not be entirely reliable.  

“The Secretary [of State] has... contracted with Experian to get data, commercial credit report data from Experian to look at where people supposedly currently live... The Secretary of State has been giving counties that information for them to determine whether or not someone has moved,” Badat said.  

The concern with this method is that there could be errors in information. If the reports use outdated data, they could be listing voters as inactive even if they have participated in recent elections. One case of this happened back in July, when Itawamba County resident Thomas Minor was unable to vote because of unverified data from Experian reports.  

“No one has tested the reliability of that data, including the Secretary of State's office... And that data is largely a black box. We don't know what sources Experian is using to determine what someone's address is,” Badat said. “They say that they use many different types of sources. We don't know what those sources are.”

Emilee Shell with the Mississippi Impact Coalition raised yet another concern. She said people who were ineligible to vote due to crimes committed had been given Voter ID cards anyway. Shel said there are eight known cases where this has happened and could be more in other areas.

“Just because you have a voter ID card does not make you actually eligible to vote. And that's another crime in itself, which is voter fraud,” Shell said. “So, it seems like the system is set up intentionally trying to make those people commit another crime by having the right [to] vote."

Shell said she’s encouraging voters who know they are ineligible to be wary and check if any crimes committed change their eligibility to vote before going to the polls.  

Voters who need information or voting assistance can also call the One Voice Election Protection Hotline at (888)-601-8683.  

To find a sample ballot of candidates in your district, visit mpbonline.org slash voter guide.