Blame Experian’s Bad Data for a Slew of Provisional (Afffidavit) Ballots in Mississippi That Could Determine Outcome of Senate Election

“It just kind of blew me away,” Lowery said. “And a few people I was in line with to get the affidavit, they felt the same way. They had all been registered to vote there. One guy next to me said he’s been voting there for 30 years.”

Lowery said the last time he checked online today, his vote was still marked as unprocessed.

Thousands of Mississippians like Lowery — whose votes may decide a critical U.S. Senate race, in which Democrat Scott Colom holds a slim lead over Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) — are still waiting to have their ballots counted. That’s because of the Republican secretary of state’s contract with Experian, a global credit reporting agency whose data has been described as riddled with errors, that threw thousands of voters into “inactive” status in the months leading up to the general election.

 In highly populated DeSoto County, over 15,000 people were removed as active voters in the time between the primary and general election, according to an analysis from Mississippi Today with data from the state.

Other counties with high rates of inactive voters include Jackson with 14,063 and Harrison, where Lowery votes, with 28,921. For many of these voters showing up to the polls on Tuesday, this was a shock. …

Secretary of State Michael Watson (R) acknowledged the mayhem Tuesday, but defended the inactivations as a “cornerstone of election integrity.”

“We’re getting multiple calls about people not showing up as active voters, so we wanted to share a few details,” Watson wrote in a social media post. “Our office obtains data for the entire state and sends it down to the counties. The election commissioners receive the information and are charged with verifying it before updating. Thankfully, affidavit voting is used to catch any errors or those who live in the same county but forgot to update their info.”

Watson concluded that the “extra few minutes” it takes a voter to vote provisionally are “well worth the election integrity added by having cleaner voter rolls.”

Lowery said he waited in line for his affidavit ballot with dozens of other voters for an hour and 15 minutes. Because Lowery had a valid form of photo identification with him, that was sufficient to validate his vote. Voters without photo identification must verify their identity within five days for their affidavit ballot to count.

Technology and elections experts have denounced the state’s deal with Experian as wildly irresponsible. 

Thessalia Merivaki, who researches elections at Washington State University, said that while states often partner with outside agencies to help keep their voter rolls up to date, this comes with significant challenges when data is not accurate — as it appears to be with Experian.

“We have evidence that some of the data are not reliable because eligible voters have been erroneously inactivated and then they never received the mail alert because it was sent to the wrong address, because the data were faulty,” Merivaki told Democracy Docket.

“It’s such a close election where literally every vote counts,” Merivaki added. “And my assessment is these affidavits are gonna really make or break who wins this election.”…