Colom and Hyde-Smith’s Mississippi Senate race puts 230,000 inactive voter registrations under scrutiny

• Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democrat Scott Colom are in a tight race to become the state’s junior senator.
• As of 2 p.m. ET Friday, Colom was in the lead by just over 2,000 votes, according to Associated Press data.

The big picture: More than 230,000 Mississippians were listed as inactive before the midterm elections, according to a Mississippi Today analysis. That’s up from about 166,000 in the 2024 election, according to federal data.

• These voters were not removed from the rolls, but they had to vote by affidavit in Tuesday’s election.

• Election officials review these ballots after Election Day, checking voter information against registration records. In some cases, voters must verify their identity with their county’s precinct clerk’s office, which slows down the vote count and, in this case, determines the winner.

The plot: The total number of inactive voters spiked after the state’s primary in March, a few months after Secretary of State Michael Watson’s office signed a $50,000 deal with credit reporting company Experian to help verify voters’ addresses.

• “The increase in inactive registrations in the state of Mississippi raised some concerns because it seemed unusually high compared to other cycles and in such a short period of time,” Thessalia Merivaki, an election research expert and former professor at Mississippi State University, told Axios.
• She said there were concerns about the “reliability” of these data brokers and whether relying on them had “resulted in erroneously placing eligible voters on an inactive status.”

How it works: Experian’s data was intended to flag voters who may have moved, not to automatically establish a change of address.

• Local election officials were supposed to compare those records with other information, such as death records, Social Security records and the National Change of Address Database, to keep voter rolls up to date, but counties have discretion over how to do that.
• Merivaki says Oktibbeha County officials knew some records were inaccurate because they recognized voters. An Oktibbeha County elections official confirmed this information to Axios on Friday.

Concrete example: Jarvis Dortch, executive director of the ACLU of Mississippi, told Axios that a longtime Chickasaw County voter was told he lived in another county, although he never moved.

• Dortch suspects a car loan the man co-signed for his sister in Lee County likely caused the confusion. He said the state ultimately let him vote.
• Dortch also said some voters were turned away instead of being offered affidavit ballots.

Yes, but: It’s unclear how many newly inactive listings are due to Experian data.

• An Experian spokesperson told Axios that the company “has not provided services to the state of Mississippi since early 2025. The solution provided at that time consisted of additional address information and was not designed to validate voter records.”
• “Decisions regarding policies, procedures, and updates to voter registration records are made solely by election officials in accordance with applicable local, state, and federal laws.”
• Watson’s office later told WAPT-TV that it no longer uses Experian data, switching to IDI data and U.S. Postal Service records.
• His office did not respond to questions from Axios about when he stopped using the data or other detailed questions about the contract and its terms.

What they say: Watson defended the state’s system Tuesday, saying, “The few extra minutes it may take to vote by affidavit are well worth the election integrity added by clearer voter rolls!”

Go further: Magic in Mississippi: Democrat locked in Deep South Senate stun