Over 30 individuals reported for duty to One Voice in Jackson on November 3, Election Day. The volunteers manned phone calls coming in from all over the state reporting issues at the polls and asking for assistance with voter rolls and other matters that could interfere with citizens’ right to vote.

The largest number of calls dealt with individuals trying to confirm their active voting status on local rolls when they were told they weren’t registered. Volunteers looked up callers’ status on various roll databases, including the Secretary of State’s. Most callers were indeed showing as registered on the online rolls and then instructed to ask for an affidavit ballot to cast.

One of the issues surrounding lack of presence on voter rolls is that individuals will leave the polling place without asking for a search, thus losing their right to vote in the current election.

There were also instances of printed ballots not being available and voters instructed to place blank sheets of paper in voting machines and vote via touch screen, which would allegedly produce the correct ballot. This proved difficult for voters who are not computer savvy.

Some voters reported showing their voter registration cards at polling places and still being turned away.

Although the presence of law enforcement officers close to or inside polling places is prohibited by federal law, OneVoice nevertheless received several calls of officers wrongly positioned in regards to polling places. In fact, road blocks were even present at one precinct.  Word was also received that federal agents were at polling places in certain counties.

With the number of purged voters at over 200,000 a week out from the election, it was not surprising that individuals could not locate their names on the rolls.

There was a number of reports of broken voting machines, machines placed where people could see who the voter was choosing, and waits as long as three hours in the early part of the day. And, the Secretary of State’s online presence was glitched for a time in the morning.

Finally, there were calls from individuals who needed assistance to vote, yet no one from the precinct was available to help.

Calls came from primarily large population counties: DeSoto, Hinds, Rankin, Madison, Jackson, Harrison, Warren and others. 

It was felt that the number of calls to the OneVoice hotline was indicative of the large voter turnout for the day, which is a good sign for voter participation. That said, repetitive, persistent issues were prevalent, despite efforts to educate voters and precinct and election officers.

It is clear, however, that everyone involved in the election system, from those who run it to the voters to those called to monitor and protect the process, need stronger training about systems and expectations. We will make that a priority in our work going forward into Mississippi’s 2027 General Election