Republican Secretary of State Michael Watson is facing criticism from voting rights advocates and lawmakers after his office applied error-filled consumer credit data to voter rolls, a move that led to a high number of Mississippians having to cast affidavit ballots on Election Day, or simply not voting.
As the national press, election lawyers and voting rights groups flocked to Mississippi to watch a close U.S. Senate race between Democrat Scott Colom and Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, Watson caught the brunt of criticism as deficiencies in Mississippi’s election laws were exposed.
Four Republican legislators told Mississippi Today they were disappointed in Watson and thought his handling of the credit data was a dereliction of conservative leadership.
One GOP lawmaker, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about a powerful statewide official in the same political party, said he wasn’t angry with Watson, but believed the secretary’s idea to keep using the credit data was a poor decision “especially considering that clerks and commissioners have been saying for months that the data was not correct.”
READ MORE: Secretary of state ignored demands to reinstate voters inactivated by unverified Experian data days before midterms: ‘Harm is falling on eligible voters’
Watson defended the use of the credit data and said his agency the last two years had rolled out two pilot programs for local election workers to become acclimated to the data and that during that period they “didn’t hear a word” from the local leaders.
Laura Antonow, a Lafayette County election commissioner, previously told Mississippi Today that when Lafayette County became the first county to use the credit data, the commission informed Watson’s office that the data included incorrect information.
The secretary of state speculated that the reason a firestorm has erupted over the credit data is because of the closeness of the U.S. Senate race.
“We’ve got to have accurate data, and I don’t apologize for having clean voter rolls,” Watson told reporters Tuesday.
When Watson was asked if he thought the credit company’s address data was still reliable, his communications director ended the interview, whisked the secretary away and said “we’re not getting into all of that.”
A sample ballot is on display at Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Jackson during the midterm elections on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi TodayWatson, in a later written statement, called the anonymous Republican legislators “weak-kneed” and he continued to stand behind his actions.
“The same ‘Republican’ legislators who voted for election integrity are now against clean voter rolls?” Watson said. “You cannot simply walk the conservative side of the fence when it’s convenient for you. You’re either for election integrity or you’re not.”
The Secretary of State’s Office spent $50,000 to run nearly 2 million checks of Experian’s commercial data against registered voters’ addresses, and for the first time this election cycle that data was used to maintain rolls in every county. In the contract, Experian said it could not guarantee the “accuracy or reliability” of its data, and Watson’s office signed off on that disclaimer.
Mississippi Today published an analysis in March that found incorrect information mistakenly led to the inactivation of legitimate voters ahead of the primaries. Experian has faced years of legal challenges at the state and federal levels, including a now-settled 2014 lawsuit by Mississippi, over errors in the company’s credit reports – including incorrect addresses.
READ MORE: Inside the secretary of state’s $50,000 deal to use Experian’s unverified information that he said would ‘strengthen’ election integrity
Watson said Tuesday that his agency dropped Experian at some point this year and switched to IDI Data, a company that sells identity records to businesses and the government, because he thought the new company offered “a better product.”
The secretary of state has also pointed out that local officials are legally required to verify voter information before changing registrations, and any decisions to place voters on an inactive status is the decision of the local election officials.
If local officials place a voter on inactive status, those voters are not purged from the voter rolls. Inactive status voters are still eligible to cast an affidavit ballot.
But several Republican critics have pointed to the fact that Watson’s office chose to put credit data in front of counties in the first place and wonder if voters who were wrongly flagged as inactive grew frustrated by not being on the poll books and left without casting a vote at all.
The problems with Experian weren’t the only mishap by Watson’s office that drew criticism as the final votes were tallied in the nail-biting U.S. Senate race.
READ MORE: DeSoto County moved more voters to inactive in the leadup to Election Day than any other.
In the days following the Nov. 3 election, as only hundreds of votes separated the candidates, it became clear that the outstanding affidavit ballots could determine the outcome of the race.
Affidavit ballots are filled out when a person doesn’t bring a valid form of ID to the polls, or there’s a discrepancy with their voter records. These ballots can then be “cured” to ensure they’re accepted, which had to be done by Nov. 10.
Voting rights groups, student organizers and community groups sprang into action ahead of the deadline. They repeatedly called election officials and even organized carpools to the offices of local circuit clerks.
Amid the chaos, the nonprofit law firm Mississippi Center for Justice noticed that the secretary of state’s election calendar did not include a deadline for “pending” voters to provide proof of citizenship so that their affidavit ballots are counted.
That requirement imposed on voters arose due to the Legislature’s 2026 passage of the SHIELD Act, a law that requires local election officials to verify voters’ citizenship using a federal immigration database and to audit voter rolls for potential noncitizens.
Watson said he he was “especially proud” of the Legislature for passing the measure. In the days following the closely watched U.S. Senate race, it became clear his office did not know how to interpret parts of the law.
An attorney with the Center for Justice noticed the deadline was absent from the secretary of state’s election calendar and emailed Watson’s office to request that it be added. The center said voters who had their ballots rejected due to the citizenship proof requirement were left in the dark about the deadline for ensuring their votes counted.
In a Nov. 6 email to the center obtained by Mississippi Today, Laura Henderson-Courtney, an attorney with the secretary of state’s Elections Division, wrote that her office could not definitively state whether the deadline in the SHIELD Act was five calendar days or five business days.
“Our office is not authorized to interpret statutes,” Henderson-Courtney wrote. “We intend to submit that issue for the Mississippi Attorney General’s office for review. Once we have some direction from the Mississippi Attorney General on this issue, we will be glad to move forward in the future with posting that to our calendar.”
That did not happen before the ballot curing deadline for voters, and state government officials still don’t have a clear answer. A person close to the situation in the AG’s office said on Thursday that they had no record of receiving anything from the secretary of state’s office. Watson told Mississippi Today on Friday that his office was still in the process of preparing the submission.
Ballot bags are piled on the floor, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026, at the Rankin County Election Commission in Brandon as the U.S. Senate race between Democratic candidate Scott Colom and the incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith remained uncalled. Credit: AP Photo/Ellen SchmidtIn a statement, Harya Tarekegn, director of advocacy and policy for the Mississippi Center for Justice, said Watson has made elections less accessible to Mississippians who can vote. She said he used “unreliable Experian data for months to prevent thousands of eligible Mississippians from casting a regular ballot” and “championed the SHIELD Act, then never determined or published the deadline for voters who would be forced to vote by affidavit ballot then cure.”
“His focus has not been on ensuring Mississippi has secure elections that all eligible Mississippians can vote in,” Tarekegn said. “It has been on implementing unnecessary barriers through unreliable means and it continues to show.”
Sen.-elect Colom said on Tuesday that Watson needs to conduct a press conference to “answer some tough questions” and apologize to Mississippians.
“Nobody has gotten a straight answer from him as to why he used Experian to verify these voter rolls,” Colom said. “He created chaos. He created this problem.”
Colom also said he believes the Legislature should pass a law banning Watson’s office from using commercial credit data if Watson won’t stop using it voluntarily.
Democratic state Rep. Zakiya Summers of Jackson, a former elections commissioner, told Mississippi Today that she plans to introduce such a bill next legislative session.
The secretary of state could face political headwinds over the recent election. Watson announced in April that he is running as a Republican for lieutenant governor, and was largely viewed as a shoo-in for the seat.
Now, several Republican politicians are speculating whether the scrutiny of Watson’s handling of the recent election will attract a primary challenger or give a Democrat enough ammunition to mount a general election campaign.
But the 48-year-old Republican has a lengthy political resume, would likely have his home region of the Coast supporting him, and is sitting on more than $2.4 million in cash, according to campaign finance reports.
In his statement to Mississippi Today, Watson commended the work of election workers and said his office worked with them to ensure the election was secure.
“We have followed the law as passed by the Legislature and the only reason it has come under such scrutiny is because of the razor thin margin in our U.S. Senate race,” Watson said. “Nothing has changed. The process is working and the law is being followed.”
Madeline Nguyen contributed to this report.
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