Why Mississippi's vote count is so slow.

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It seems that Mississippi farmed its election integrity out to Experian, and they used bad data. It resulted in thousands of eligible voters being declared inactive. Which means there are thousands of provisional ballots to cure and count. That process takes time. Was it incompetence or intent that led to this?

electionlawblog.org - Blame experians bad data for a slew of provisional afffidavit ballots in mississippi that could determine outc

“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. ...

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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.”...

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