Voters in Mississippi and Georgia ran into long lines, broken voting machines and a ballot rescan on Election Day as heavy midterm turnout tested local election offices in both states.
In Mississippi, the Secretary of State’s Office said its elections hotline took a high volume of calls, Mississippi Today reports. Callers reported precincts that opened late, voting machines that went down for a while, and trouble checking their registration status.
Jada Barnes, field director for the nonprofit Mississippi Votes, said the group’s hotline got a flurry of calls that morning, including reports of “long lines in Hinds County” and “machine malfunctions in DeSoto County.” “I know our hotline has really been jumping, for lack of a better word,” Barnes told Mississippi Today.
The Mississippi Votes Action Fund also reported that phone lines for the Hinds County and Jackson County circuit clerks were down, according to WJTV.
On the Gulf Coast, Jackson County voters reported hour-long lines and equipment problems at several polling places. County officials blamed the problems on the election commission’s new voting machines. Commission chairman Danny Glaskok said some elderly poll workers struggled with the new scanners. “They were intimidated by the machine, to be honest with you,” he said.
Turnout is running high in a state where Democrat Scott Colom is challenging Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith for a U.S. Senate seat.
In Georgia, Fulton County asked to rescan 1,069 early ballots after two scanners malfunctioned, CBS News Atlanta reports. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the rescan should not delay results. “It’s one of those things that can happen, and we always have procedures in place,” he said. The Republican National Committee said it would send extra observers to watch the rescan.
Fulton County also warned voters that it had not sent any text messages about polling place changes, and told them to check their location on the state’s My Voter Page. In Gwinnett County, a judge kept Precinct 21 in Norcross open until 7:07 p.m. after a school safety drill paused voting for about seven minutes.
Raffensperger said more than 2.8 million Georgians voted early, and he projected 1.4 million to 1.5 million more on Election Day.
What to Do If You Run Into Trouble
Polls in both states close at 7 p.m. local time. “If you’re in line by 7 p.m., just remember, stay in line,” Raffensperger said. Voters with problems can call the nonpartisan Election Protection hotline at 866-OUR-VOTE.
For now, election officials in both states say voting is going ahead, and counting starts once the polls close. Long lines are partly a sign that people are showing up, but in places like Hinds County, a working machine still decides whether a ballot gets cast.
Photo Credit: X: Scott_Colom
