Voter inactivations surged ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections, the first since the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office authorized unverified data from the credit bureau Experian for counties to use statewide when cleaning their voter rolls.
A Mississippi Today analysis of voter data from the secretary of state found that in the eight months since the March primaries, inactivations more than doubled in some jurisdictions, leaving up to 1 in 5 voters in counties such as DeSoto and Wilkinson one step closer to being purged from the rolls. Over 230,000 voters statewide — or about 1 in 9 — are now inactive ahead of Election Day as Mississippi stares at an increasingly competitive U.S. Senate race between Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democratic challenger Scott Colom.
For years, county election officials relied on verified government data to do the routine job of identifying and inactivating voters who moved or died. But since Republican Secretary of State Michael Watson last year announced a $50,000 deal to use Experian’s data statewide to “strengthen the integrity of elections,” Mississippi Today found incorrect information mistakenly led to the inactivation of legitimate voters ahead of the primaries.
Watson previously said his office’s rollout of the commercial data was “wildly successful,” but voting rights advocates and election experts question whether the latest surge in inactivations indicates mistakes in the data have put a larger number of legitimate voters at risk. The secretary of state’s office did not answer questions about the reason behind the spike in time for Mississippi Today’s publication of this article.
“Our office is busy prepping for the federal midterm election, and we will be happy to address your questions in a more realistic timeframe after the election,” Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth Jonson wrote in an email.
Advocates warn surge could create barriers to ballot box
While inactive voters can still cast a ballot, they have to go through additional hurdles to make sure their vote counts, such as filling out an affidavit ballot. Advocates are concerned that many of these voters won’t find out they’ve been inactivated until they go to the polls, where confusion, frustration or fear may prevent them from exercising their right to vote.
“There may be a lot of disenfranchisement tomorrow from people who are showing up to vote,” Nsombi Lambright, executive director of the Jackson-based nonprofit One Voice, said Monday. “My concern is that their vote may not be counted.”
Michael Watson gives a speech as he announces his campaign for Mississippi lieutenant governor at a Hilton Garden Inn in Pascagoula on Tuesday, April 7, 2026. Credit: The Sun HeraldThe additional steps inactive voters must take at the polls has made Amir Badat, a Mississippi voting rights attorney with Fair Fight Action, concerned that the surge could disrupt election operations Tuesday by creating long lines, depleting affidavit ballots and straining the county election commissioners responsible for conducting the elections.
“It’s just a totally unnecessary burden on voters and election commissioners that the state has created,” Badat said. “Voters are going to be, like, ‘Wait, why is my name not on the poll book? Why do I have to vote this separate process?’ People are going to have less confidence that their ballot will be counted.”
DeSoto County emerges as ‘hotspot’ for inactivations
Voting rights advocates are watching DeSoto County, which accounted for over a third of all inactivations in Mississippi’s 82 counties from the primaries to the midterms. There, election commissioners removed over 15,000 voters from the active rolls, doubling the number of inactive voters in just months.
To election researcher Thessalia Merivaki, who previously taught at Mississippi State University, an increase of that scale raises a “red flag.” She said the secretary of state’s rollout of commercial data could have driven the surge, instead of the traditional methods election commissioners have used to identify whether voters have moved, such as information from the U.S. Postal Service or an undeliverable jury summons.
“Is it reasonable to expect that all these voters that are inactive, they were asked to do jury duty, or they moved out of the county, or they moved within the county in six months?” Merivaki said.
The surge in inactive voters also pushed DeSoto County Democratic Party Chair Deborah Williams to raise concerns to the election commission responsible for inactivating voters. Williams said after she asked about it, commissioners ordered more affidavit ballots to ensure there wouldn’t be a shortage on Election Day.
The DeSoto County Election Commission did not respond to a request for comment.
As voting rights advocates seek answers on the reason behind the surge, Lambright said the most immediate concern is ensuring inactive voters still know they have the right to vote. Her organization, One Voice, last week announced the launch of a website with the Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign for voters to search whether they’ve been inactivated or purged.
Since entering the partnership with Experian, the secretary of state’s office last week wrote in a statement to WAPT that it has replaced the credit bureau’s data with another company, IDI Data.
You can check your voter registration status before heading to the polls at the secretary of state’s Y’all Vote website.
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