Was the fix in?

Residents in parts of Mississippi disproportionately populated by Black people were the victims of not only voter intimidation ahead of Election Day but were also met with extreme voter suppression when it came time to cast ballots on Tuesday, reports suggested after a series of circumstances left no other feasible explanation.

Black voters in Hinds County are still in line casting ballots due to Mississippi’s failed election system & ongoing voter suppression. We must honor every person’s exercise of the right to vote. There cannot be two voting systems—one Black, one white—unequal and thus unlawful. https://t.co/9e3wDbv4fp

— Janai Nelson (@JNelsonLDF) November 8, 2023

In particular, multiple polling places in Hinds County – home of Mississippi’s capital city of Jackson where nearly 74% of residents are Black and boasting the highest population of any state county – were not equipped with enough ballots, with some precincts even running out of their supply within hours of opening, according to widespread reports.

The line at Wildwood Baptist Church in Clinton currently. Some voters who just cast their ballot had waited for 2 and a half hours. I’m told this polling location has run out of ballots at least 5 times and have been restocked w/ less than 100 ballots every couple hours. @WLBT pic.twitter.com/azUOIvkEs2

— Brendan Hall (@HallReports) November 8, 2023

The reports of voter suppression came in the hours before Republican Gov. Tate Reeves — on whose behalf the state GOP was accused of employing racist fearmongering tactics — won his reelection.

At least eight polling places in Hinds County didn’t have enough ballots for voters whose intentions to participate in the democratic process should have been made clear by their registrations. Some of them ran out of ballots multiple times throughout the day on Tuesday.

This is what white supremacy looks like. #Mississippi pic.twitter.com/MqFGGGQ57i

— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) November 8, 2023

Notably, Jason McCarty, a member of the Hinds County Democratic Party Executive Committee, noted that Mississippi voters were “not seeing any of these issues in any other precincts in any other counties, to this degree.”

McCarty raved about the “overwhelming, amazing turnout we are seeing in Hinds County,” suggesting that an outsized number of Black voters were affected by the lack of ballots.

These first numbers out of Hinds county are EXACTLY why they ran out of ballots and toner on our folks. https://t.co/sOSbIsAnaK

— Tami Sawyer (@tamisawyer) November 8, 2023

A judge ultimately ordered the polls to stay open just one hour later than normal to accommodate voters unable to gain access to ballots, but only after the state’s Democratic Party filed a motion for that to happen.

A judge later denied the request to keep polls open until 9 p.m. Polls were originally scheduled to close at 7 p.m.

BREAKING At least 9 Hinds county precincts have run out of ballots, according to the clerk. Election officials are now scrambling to quickly print new ballots and rush them out to the polling places. It could be a long night this Election Day. pic.twitter.com/1yMfbZyEY0

— Ross Adams (@radamsWAPT) November 7, 2023

WLBT reported that Republicans were adamant about not extending polling hours and keeping the votes of those who cast ballots after 7 p.m. “segregated and not counted with ballots of voters in line prior.”

In addition to the preventable deficit of ballots in majority-Black polling places, an investigation by the Mississippi Free Press found that the state has wrong or missing addresses for 92 voting precincts.

Problems with Presley Dem loss in Mississippi: At least NINE Hinds County polls (which includes nearly 83%-Black Capital Jackson) ran out of ballots with thousands waiting to vote, and a circuit judge denied a request to keep polls open until 9 pm. https://t.co/E1erT10n6J

— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) November 8, 2023

Hinds County was “among the 21 counties where the Mississippi Free Press identified address errors.”

Mississippi’s election was held one day after local NAACP leaders condemned a police checkpoint near the state’s largest polling place – which just so happens to be in its majority-Black capital city and “next to” Jackson State University, a historically Black college – as “voter intimidation” and suppression tactics.

Notably, Jackson is a city that Census data shows has a population of nearly 83% Black people.

Janai Nelson, President and Director-Counsel of LDF, specifically blamed “Mississippi’s failed election system & ongoing voter suppression.”

SEE ALSO:

Mississippi ‘Voter Intimidation’ By Police Reported Near HBCU, State’s Largest Polling Place In Black City

New Polls: Black Voters Supporting Trump At ‘Unseen’ Levels For Republicans In Swing States

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