4 min read
Major Takeaways
- Streets around the Hinds County Circuit Clerk office in downtown Jackson sat blocked by police tape, barricades, and patrol cars on Monday.
- Voters trying to fix affidavit ballots on lunch breaks got turned around one day before the Tuesday cure deadline.
- Voting advocates with megaphones and Count Every Vote signs gathered outside to demand that every lawful ballot be counted.
- The disruption landed in the middle of a Senate race where Scott Colom leads Cindy Hyde-Smith by 2,574 votes.
Jackson voters on a deadline ran into a wall of yellow tape on Monday.
Streets surrounding the Hinds County Circuit Clerk office sat closed behind police tape and metal barricades. Patrol cars lined the blocks near the State Capitol grounds.
That office is the very place affidavit voters must visit to show identification and lock in their ballots. Monday was the last full day to do it.
Video courtesy of Danyelle Holmes
Voters Turned Around at the Tape
Danyelle Holmes streamed the scene live on Monday morning and narrated what callers were telling her.
Many voters were trying to access the Hinds County Circuit Clerk office on a lunch break, she said. They were frustrated and turning around, calling to say they could not get in.
One question kept coming up as she described the calls. How do we get in?
Holmes called it a big mass disruption of voters accessing the office on that day. Her bottom line was simple. “We care about our votes being counted on today.”
Her camera caught the full picture. Yellow tape reading Police Line Do Not Cross stretched across the street.
Big trucks rolled through the closed blocks while camera crews crossed between them. The closures wrapped the blocks voters needed to reach.
On the sidewalks, advocates in Election Protection shirts held Count Every Vote signs. Speakers worked megaphones and kept the crowd focused on one demand.
Photo: Video still courtesy of Danyelle Holmes
Why Every Hour Counts Right Now
Mississippi still has no winner in its United States Senate race, six days after Election Day.
Scott Colom holds 467,930 votes to 465,356 for Cindy Hyde-Smith, a margin of 2,574 votes. Every precinct in the state has reported.
The ballots still moving through the system are affidavit and mail ballots. The Secretary of State reported Sunday that 12,767 affidavit ballots have been processed statewide, with about 77 percent accepted.
More than 2,800 mail ballots can still arrive through Tuesday and count, as long as they were postmarked by Election Day.
A faulty voter roll data problem pushed thousands of Mississippi voters to inactive status this year. That error produced an affidavit pile estimated near 17,000 ballots statewide.
Hinds County is the largest county in Mississippi, and its review is still moving precinct by precinct. What happens in Jackson can still move this race.
The legal fight is already warming up. Lawyers for Hyde-Smith have demanded that all 82 counties preserve every affidavit ballot as possible evidence of a challenge to come.
Photo: Video still courtesy of Danyelle Holmes
What Voters Need to Do Before Tuesday Ends
Any voter who cast an affidavit ballot because they lacked photo identification can cure that ballot at the circuit clerk office. The deadline is the close of business on Tuesday, November 10.
Voters can also check the status of an affidavit or absentee ballot on the Secretary of State website before making the trip. Look for the ballot tracking tool on the My Election Day page.
Community groups are offering free rides to the Hinds County office for Jackson voters who need to cure a ballot. The office sits at 407 East Pascagoula Street in downtown Jackson.
The NAACP has formally urged every county election commission in Mississippi to follow the law exactly through the count and certification. State law also lets members of the public observe the counting process.
Counties must certify their results by Friday, November 13. Mississippi has no recount law, so certification locks the result in unless a court or the United States Senate steps in.
For the voters who stood outside that tape on Monday, none of that process talk mattered as much as the words on the signs above their heads. Count every vote.
