Mississippi election chief blames local officials for voter purge chaos amid razor-thin Senate race. They're pushing back

Key Points:

• Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson defended the state's controversial voter purge program, asserting it functions as intended despite causing thousands of voters to cast affidavit ballots due to registration issues.
• Watson blamed county election commissioners for verifying voter information before changing registrations, while at least one commissioner, Tonya Rivers of Rankin County, argued Watson's office provided inaccurate data from Experian and failed to properly inform local officials.
• The use of Experian's commercial data to supplement voter roll maintenance has led to widespread inaccuracies, with some voters flagged as having moved to incorrect or unknown addresses, resulting in distrust and increased affidavit ballot rejections.
• Rivers highlighted that local election officials were not consulted before the Experian data was incorporated, and that maintaining voter rolls requires verified information, with removal of voters based on unverified data being inappropriate.
• Despite acknowledging some disruptions, Watson maintained the program's necessity for clean voter rolls and cited a 77-78% affidavit ballot acceptance rate as evidence of the system's effectiveness, with no plans to discontinue the program.