Voters who registered on May 31, 2022, may not be able to cast a traditional ballot but will be instructed to vote by absentee at the polls.
Voting began at 7:00 a.m. today in Mississippi Congressional Districts 2, 3, and 4 for the Republican Primary Runoff elections. The Secretary of State’s office reported that calls remain steady with most relating to polling locations and ballot confusion at the St. Philip’s Episcopal Church voting precinct in Congressional District 2.
More importantly, due to an incorrect calendar selection in the Statewide Election Management System (SEMS), Mississippians who registered to vote on May 31, 2022, which was the voter registration deadline for primary runoff elections, or postmarked a voter registration application on May 31, 2022, will not appear in the pollbooks during today’s runoff elections. Voters in this situation are instructed to cast an affidavit ballot at the polls today.
Local officials conducting the election will review the voter’s registration and accept the affidavit ballot if the effective voter registration date was on or before May 31, 2022.
There have been roughly 10 reports of voters claiming they were able to cast a District 3 ballot in the Primary Election but received a District 2 ballot from poll workers at the same precinct.
Primary runoff elections are conducted by political parties and local election officials.
All reports have been passed along to the proper authorities, including the Attorney General’s Office.
SEMS has reported a total of 5,317 absentee ballots requested for today’s runoff elections. The total is just shy of the 5,612 Republican absentee ballots requested on the June 7th Primary Election Day.
All Republican Primary Runoff Election mail-in absentee ballots must be postmarked by today, June 28th, and received by Circuit Clerk Offices within five business days of June 28th in order to count.
Sarah Ulmer
