The county election officials under whose watch ballot shortages hampered voting in Mississippi’s largest county said technical mishaps and insufficient training were to blame for election day chaos in November.
At a meeting with representatives from a coalition of statewide and national civil rights organizations, Hinds County election commissioners said Monday that their mishaps caused several polling locations in Hinds County to run out of ballots. They admitted to sharing the wrong voter data with the company they contracted to print ballots, which directly led to the ballot shortages.
“Complete human error. I hate that the citizens of Hinds County had to experience that,” said Commissioner RaToya Gilmer McGee.
But the commissioners, all Democrats, also pointed to what they said was inadequate guidance from Secretary of State Michael Watson, a Republican. The commissioners said they had to rely on a training manual written for election officials across the state.
Sounds a lot like blame shifting. I’m not understanding how anyone would expect the Secretary of State to know how each and every county should handle their election. And I also don’t understand how human error on the commissioners end should be blaming the SoS. This just really stinks of blame shifting rather than taking the blame and doing better next time. That’s the whole point of having election commissioners is for them to make it work for the county they’re a part of.