The last time Lafayette County residents took to the polls for the March primaries, they voted on a paperless, direct-recording electronic (DRE) system, but this November, the county will return to paper-based ballots for the first time since 2007.
While DREs were once seen as the most accessible, high-tech voting machine option, concerns about their level of security have arisen over the past decade. Without any paper trail of votes, errors in the machine hardware or software can be difficult to detect, which allows a greater possibility for mistakes or breaches to go unnoticed. Last year, proof of malfunctions surfaced with the AccuVote TSx machines used in Lafayette County.
In a video posted to Facebook last August, a man repeatedly attempted to select Bill Waller Jr. on his Lafayette County voting machine, and each time, the machine would uncheck Waller and select then-Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves. While the Secretary of State’s office said this was the only machine that malfunctioned, The Washington Post reported that 19 votes were cast on it before the county took the machine offline.
A substantial group of voting security experts, including Lawrence Norden, director of the Brennan Center for Justice, agree that paper-based ballots are the only reliable means of verifying votes and ensuring that voting — the cornerstone of the American democracy — remains secure.
According to Norden, nearly 90% of voters in the U.S. will use paper ballots this year. Now, voters in Lafayette County will join the vast majority voting with traceable paper ballots, and county circuit clerk Jeff Busby said that the county is preparing for a voter turnout unlike previous years.
Over 600 people registered to vote in Lafayette County on the last day of eligibility on Oct. 5, he said, and thousands more than expected registered throughout the year.
“Our surges were right before the primaries on March 10 and then right before this election over the past couple of months, but the grand total was 4,127 people that registered to vote or moved their registration to Lafayette County,” Busby said.
From his estimates, around 1,500 new voters register in the county for a typical presidential election year, and in years without presidential elections, Busby said his office usually expects around 300 or 400 new registrations. Before this year, he said a number over 4,000 would have been imperceivable.
To date, absentee ballot requests are also almost double what they have been in previous years. According to Busby, over 4,000 absentee ballots have been requested thus far, while the most the county has seen in the past is approximately 2,300. Voters in Lafayette County can continue requesting absentee ballots through Oct. 31.
“Of course, this year, not only is it a race that’s gotten so much publicity for one reason or the other, but you’ve also got COVID, which I think plays a huge part in that as well,” Busby said. “The numbers for voter registration that we’ve seen this year have not at all been typical.”
Apart from the impact that COVID-19 has had on the political discourse in the country, it has also changed the way many people are thinking about how they want to vote.
Kaitlin Bethay, president of the UM law school’s American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) chapter, said she has received numerous questions from students about COVID-19 precautions at the polls.
“Long story short, if you’re looking for COVID to be an excuse because you feel like you’re vulnerable for health reasons, that won’t cut it,” Bethay said. “You’ll need to be quarantined or caring for someone who is quarantined for COVID. That’s the newest excuse they’ve allowed.”
Other valid excuses in Mississippi for absentee voting include being out of one’s registered county on Election Day, having a temporary or permanent disability and being aged 65 or older.
“If you have an excuse that’s valid, then you can do absentee voting. I would definitely do that just to avoid lines and crowds and to keep yourself and others safe,” Bethay said. “Unfortunately, Mississippi doesn’t have early voting like other states, which is a huge bummer, but that’s just the way it is.”
The county has also offered the option for curbside voting for years, but this option is reserved for people with disabilities that don’t allow for them to enter their polling place. Still, Busby said the circuit clerk’s office would be willing to help voters who are unable to enter the polling place for other reasons, including COVID-19.
“If you have the coronavirus, then, honestly, I don’t want you going in the polls, and if you call somebody, then we will come out there,” Busby said. “But COVID is not an excuse, not in any part of the election is COVID an excuse. That was ruled in the courts, so you cannot use COVID as an excuse unless you’re quarantined.”
While registered citizens cannot be turned away from the polls or denied their right to vote for not wearing a mask, the Mississippi Secretary of State office encourages voters to wear a mask and follow social distancing rules.
Election Day is Nov. 3, and polls will open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on that day. To find their respective polling place in Mississippi, citizens can visit the polling place locator on the Secretary of State’s website.
