Thousands of Mississippi voters are scrambling to make sure their ballots count after a voter roll purge overseen by the state’s Republican secretary of state kept them out of precinct poll books on Election Day – and the outcome could decide a U.S. Senate race that remains too close to call.

Democrat Scott Colom holds a narrow lead over Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, but large numbers of voters had to cast provisional ballots, known in Mississippi as affidavit ballots, because their names were missing from poll books or they lacked proper ID, reported CNN. Both campaigns say thousands of voters were affected.

Andrew Couch is one of them. He had voted at the same polling place in the last two elections, but on Election Day he was told he was registered in a county he hadn’t lived in for six years. On Monday, he learned his ballot would not count.

“I’m very upset,” Couch told CNN. “If people lose faith in the process that we’re going through, I think it’s going to hurt voter turnout in general in the future.”

Secretary of State Michael Watson drew attention last year when the state began using commercial credit data from Experian to flag voters who may have moved. Before Election Day, more than 230,000 voters, about 1 in 9 statewide, were in inactive status and left out of local poll books, Mississippi Today reported.

Critics say the data is unreliable in a state where more than 9 percent of residents don’t use a bank. Experian itself distanced its product from the effort and told CNN it “was not designed or intended to validate voter records.” The company said it hasn’t worked with the state since early 2025.

Watson defended the purge as a way to keep “dead people, illegal aliens with fake addresses, or nonresidents” from voting. He also called affidavit ballots “a safety net for errors election commissioners make during voter roll maintenance.”

As of Monday evening, Watson said 15,547 affidavit ballots had been processed, and roughly 76 percent were accepted. Another 2,578 absentee ballots were still outstanding.

Election law experts say Mississippi stands apart. Many states let inactive voters cast regular ballots at their correct precinct, and federal law keeps them eligible for two federal general elections.

“Mississippi short-circuits the process by hastily excluding you from the poll book,” said Michael Morse of the University of Pennsylvania’s law school.

Counties have until Friday to vet provisional ballots and certify results, and the state deadline is Dec. 3.

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