The Mississippi Free Press on Oct. 23 published what is essentially a midterm election public service announcement, a list of 138 polling place changes to alert voters across the state who might otherwise be surprised on election day.
The outlet, which has been investigating polling place changes in the state since 2020, said it identified the precinct changes by submitting a public records request to the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office for a copy of the Statewide Elections Management System’s list of polling places.
Reporters then interviewed Secretary of State Michael Watson and made calls and sent emails to circuit clerks and election commissioners in all 82 counties to confirm the information in the SEMS report and to ask whether there were any additional changes that SEMS did not reflect. In “multiple instances,” the reporters found that information listed in SEMS was incorrect, “including instances involving incomplete or erroneous addresses.”
The article notes that the state’s My Election Day online polling-place locator tool can send voters to the wrong location on election day if the information the tool pulls from SEMS is inaccurate.
Although the Secretary of State’s office oversees election administration and provides election worker training, local election officials determine precinct locations and are in charge of keeping SEMS updated with the latest polling place information, the Mississippi Free Press noted. Since the 2024 election, the locations of 112 precincts have changed, 21 precincts have closed and five new precincts have opened. Statewide, there are now 16 fewer precincts, according to the article.
Image: Stock image of woman casting a ballot (via Pixabay/Yamu_Jay)