Democracy Docket: Hinds County Rejects 34% of Affidavit Ballots

Democracy Docket: Hinds County Rejects 34% of Affidavit Ballots

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Hinds County rejected two-thirds of the affidavit ballots cast during last week’s midterm elections, Democracy Docket reported Wednesday morning.

The decision in Mississippi’s second most populous county could decide the outcome of a razor-thin U.S. Senate race. Democrat Scott Colom currently holds a lead of just over 3,000 votes against incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R).

Election commissioners announced that the county accepted only 817 of the 2,426 affidavit ballots cast, representing a rejection rate of roughly 34%.

The accepted ballots, which have not yet been counted, remain a critical factor in the final tally. The county's rejection rate exceeds the statewide average, though officials said many votes were likely disqualified because voters cast ballots in the wrong precinct or had registration issues.

Discrepancies in voter acceptance rates

The local rejection rate stands in stark contrast to the figures provided by state officials. In a social media message on Tuesday afternoon, Secretary of State Michael Watson (R) said that approximately 76% of Mississippi’s affidavit ballots had been accepted statewide.

The surge in affidavit—or provisional—ballots followed a change in the state’s voter list maintenance procedures, which resulted in tens of thousands of Mississippians being marked as “inactive.” Mississippi maintains one of the most restrictive election systems in the country, lacking options for early voting, no-excuse mail voting, or online and same-day registration.

Because of these systemic hurdles, some local leaders saw the high number of rejections as an inevitable consequence of the current laws.

“I wasn’t surprised because, on Tuesday, there were… many phone calls from voters complaining that they could not vote,” Jacqueline Amos, a Mississippi representative of the Democratic National Committee, told Democracy Docket. “And so as the day went on, it just became more and more evident that we were going to have a lot of rejected affidavits.”

However, local officials expressed surprise at the sheer volume of disqualified votes. Kidada Brown, the election commissioner for Hinds County’s District 1, noted the scale of the issue.

“That’s a large amount,” Brown said. “And I’m surprised because we had a lot of people that voted in the wrong precinct.”

Under Mississippi law, ballots cast in the incorrect precinct are not counted and cannot be remedied by the voter.

The rejection process also highlighted issues with registration accuracy, particularly among students. Brown said that some voters at Jackson State University and Tougaloo College were found to be unregistered, despite having recently participated in voter registration drives.

Mississippi requires voters to use paper applications, which must be mailed or hand-delivered to county clerks at least 30 days before an election.

The path to certification

The administrative process for finalizing the election is now moving into a high-pressure window. As of Wednesday, Secretary of State Watson announced that 76 of Mississippi’s 82 counties had uploaded uncertified results, while four counties have already reported certified results.

The following table compares the affidavit ballot acceptance rates reported by Hinds County and the state of Mississippi:

Jurisdiction Affidavit Ballots Accepted Acceptance Rate
Hinds County 817 of 2,426 ~34%
Mississippi (Statewide) N/A ~76%

State law mandates that all counties upload their certified results by this Friday. In Hinds County, the resolution board—composed of residents from across the county—spent Wednesday opening and counting the accepted ballots.

Zachary Wallace, the Hinds County circuit clerk, said the county is hoping to certify its election results on Wednesday.

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