During last week’s general election, there was a significant ballot shortage in a predominantly Black county in Mississippi, and local officials scrambled to figure out why.
Hinds County has an estimated 73.5 percent Black population, according to data from the US Census Bureau. The county is part of Jackson’s metropolitan area.
Local news reported a few mishaps that caused voters to wait several hours in long lines. Officials said split precincts, which allow individuals to vote in one district while others cast their vote at another polling site, played a role in the mix-up.
“What we tried to do is print out paper ballots to make sure people that were in line get a chance to vote on paper ballot, and then later on, we can transfer the paper ballots to scannable ballots, because we did run out of ballots last night with other issues, printer issues, things like that, but we tried to work it out the best we could,” Hinds County Circuit Clerk Zack Wallace told WJTV.
Nearly 10 polling precincts, some as early as 9 a.m., including Wildwood Baptist Church, ran out of ballots on Tuesday, according to WLBT. Jason McCarty, a county Democratic Executive Committee member, slammed local officials for the hold-up.
“This is unacceptable… We were not prepared for this amazing turnout,” he said on social media per the outlet, adding, “This is going to become an issue either way because regardless of who wins, the other side will say voters are disenfranchised.”
Amid the chaos, a county circuit judge declined the request from a state voting group to keep the polls open until 9 p.m., WLBT reported. Separately, Republicans reportedly pushed back against a previous court ruling that gave polling sites an hour extension, demanding that those who were not in line during the original deadline be “segregated and not counted with ballots of voters in line prior to 7 p.m.”
GOP incumbent Gov. Tate Reeves gained 51.6…
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