Colom's razor-thin Senate race puts Mississippi's voter rolls in the spotlight
Summary
Democrat Scott Colom led Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by just over 2,000 votes in Mississippi’s close Senate race as of 2 p.m. ET Friday, with affidavit ballots still under review. The race has drawn attention to a sharp rise in voters listed as inactive and questions about how officials used third-party address data to update voter rolls.Key Facts
- More than 230,000 Mississippians were listed as inactive ahead of the midterms, compared with about 166,000 in the 2024 election, according to the article.
- Inactive voters remained registered but had to cast affidavit ballots, which election workers review after Election Day.
- Mississippi’s inactive voter total rose after the March primaries, months after the secretary of state’s office signed a $50,000 contract with Experian to help verify addresses.
- Experian said it provided supplemental address information, not voter-record validation, and stopped serving the state in early 2025.
- Local officials were expected to compare address data with other records, but counties had discretion over how to proceed.
- An Oktibbeha County election official confirmed that some voter records were inaccurate, and an ACLU of Mississippi official described a voter incorrectly associated with another county.
- The ACLU of Mississippi’s executive director said some voters were turned away rather than offered affidavit ballots.
- Secretary of State Michael Watson’s office said it later switched to IDI Data and U.S. Postal Service records; the office did not answer Axios’ questions about when it stopped using Experian data.
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