Mississippi Secretary of State crashes out over Experian voter data after election fiasco

Key Points:

• Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson threatened to sue credit reporting company Experian after the state used its data to mark over 230,000 voters as inactive, stirring controversy in a close Senate race won by Democrat Scott Colom.
• Experian stated its data was intended as supplemental address information and not for validating voter records, while Watson’s office insisted they were never informed of such limitations and accused Experian of backtracking on their agreement.
• The use of Experian’s data led to incorrect inactive classifications due to address errors, causing confusion and numerous affidavits during ballot counting, though all eligible votes were eventually counted.
• Mississippi has since switched to another commercial data provider, IDI, and Watson defended the use of commercial data for voter roll maintenance, despite criticism and calls for stronger safeguards to prevent errors.
• The dispute highlights broader concerns about relying on commercial data for election purposes, with federal studies urging caution and verification, while some right-wing officials continue to advocate for such data as a tool to maintain voter roll accuracy.