Mississippi precincts ran out of ballots; county election leaders mum about how many they printed

Hinds County, Mississippi a predominantly Black county that leans Democrat, ran out of ballots in nine precincts for Tuesday’s election.

Hinds County, Mississippi, a predominantly Black county that leans Democrat, ran out of ballots in nine precincts for Tuesday’s election, and none of the five election commissioners have answered an essential question: How many ballots did they print initially for a critical election in which residents would elect a governor, lieutenant governor and eight members of the executive branch including the treasurer and attorney general?

According to state statutes, counties must provide ballots for a minimum of 60% of the registered voters. In Hinds County, there are more than 149,000 registered voters, according to the election commission website. That means they should have printed at least 89,400 ballots. 

Hinds County is 73.5% Black, with a median income of $46,179 and 25% of the population lives in poverty. 

Mississippi’s Secretary of State Michael Watson addressed the 60% requirement. “That doesn’t mean they can’t have more, but that’s the minimum,” Watson told Mississippi Today. “The counties then decide how they are going to disperse the ballots as needed.”

In Hinds County, the election commission is composed of Kidada Brown, commission secretary and District 1 representative; RaToya Gilmer McGee, District 2 representative; Jermal Clark, commission vice chairman and District 3 representative; Yvonne Horton, commission chairman and District 4 representative; and Shirley Varnado, District 5 representative.

TheGrio emailed and called each commission member repeatedly to ask how many ballots the commission initially printed and to inquire about reports of some precincts running out of ballots two hours after polls opened, and the report that the commission restocked with fewer than 100 ballots every few hours.

None of the Hinds County election commissioners responded to theGrio’s repeated requests for comment.

However, Varnado did speak to WLBT and seemingly described the lack of ballots as a positive result. “Yes, and that’s a good thing because that means lots of people are coming out to vote today and they are taking this process very seriously, and we really appreciate that,” she says on video. She also did not provide an answer when WLBT asked about the number of ballots printed.

On Tuesday, Black residents had a difficult time voting. People stood in line for hours, some voting sites ran out of ballots by 9 a.m. and other sites had potential voters fill out paper ballots while in line. 

The locations that ran out of ballots include: 

Pineview Baptist Church

Wildwood Baptist Church

Northside Baptist Church

Pine Haven Baptist Church

Clinton YMCA

St. Thomas Thomas

Some voters gave up and got out of line. Local advocacy groups petitioned to the courts in an attempt to remedy the situation. Hinds County Judge Dewayne Thomas ordered polling sites to stay open until 8 p.m. However another judge, Jess Dickinson — appointed by the state Supreme Court — said that people who were in line at 7 p.m. could still vote but that the voting sites would close at the scheduled time. 

“Sheer incompetence,” Perry Perkins, an organizer for Working Together Mississippi, an advocacy group that helps drive voter turnout, told the Associated Press. “This is a travesty.”

Watson said the 2020 changes to voting maps also could have contributed to the problems in Hinds County. Varnado also told WLBT that the reconfiguration of voting districts is a potential reason for ballot shortages saying, “With the redistricting by the legislature,” she said, “we have more splits than we would normally have.” 

Specifically, Watson said, “They might have 10 people at the precinct who get one ballot style, and then 50 who get another ballot,” Watson told Mississippi Today. “I think in some cases, this got flipped, and they ended up with 10 of one type when they needed 50.”

Last year, the Mississippi NAACP filed a federal lawsuit alleging that the state legislature diluted Black voting power by limiting the number of majority Black districts. “Mississippi’s newest maps are a continuation of the state’s long history of disenfranchising Black voters,” Janette McCarthy Wallace, general counsel for the NAACP, said in a news release. 

Additionally, Hinds County recently changed a number of voting locations including some in Pinehaven and Clinton.

Residents and politicians alike voiced their displeasure with the lack of preparation for voters to exercise their rights. 

“What an incredible failure on the part of Hinds County to take care of its voters,” Mississippi Rep. Kent McCarty tweeted. “We provide a whole twelve hours to vote on Election Day, being without ballots for two minutes, much less two hours, is absolutely inexcusable.”

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