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Thousands of Mississippi voters need their ballots ‘cured.’ Here’s how the process works
Democracy Docket • • nation
Key Points:
- Democrat Scott Colom holds a very narrow lead over Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi’s Senate race, with 8,000 to 12,000 affidavit ballots still to be counted that could determine the winner.
- Voters who cast affidavit ballots due to issues like lacking photo ID have until November 10 to correct errors by visiting their local Circuit Clerk’s office with acceptable identification or signing a religious objection affidavit.
- Many voters were marked "inactive" due to unreliable data used to clean voter rolls, requiring them to cast affidavit ballots that must be verified through a curing process by election commissioners to be counted.
- Confusion from precinct changes led some voters to cast ballots at the wrong precinct, which cannot be cured if the voter is registered elsewhere, potentially affecting ballot validity.
- Mail ballots postmarked by Election Day have a five-business-day grace period for receipt and counting, extending the deadline to November 10, following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld this grace period.
