Wright-Hart, a black woman, stated that she likes to follow protocol. She also noted that many of the county’s experienced clerks have retired. “I still do it because I respect the person that I used to do this with,” Wright-Hart said. This protocol was originally imposed by the 1965 Voting rights Act, which was passed to protect black voters against attempts to disenfranchise. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned sections of the law that required state officials with a history of electoral discrimination, including Mississippi, to get federal permission before they could make changes to voting laws and practices such as changing polling locations. Mississippi’s past history of preventing African Americans from voting included voter intimidation, literacy tests, and poll taxes. In Shelby County v. Holder, 5-4 ruled that parts of the 1965 law were repealed and that states had greater control over elections. According to a Mississippi Today analysis of precinct data from the three previous federal elections, Mississippi counties have shut down around 100 precincts. This represents about 5% of the state’s polling places. Although Mississippi counties are required to notify the secretary-of-state when they make changes to polling places, no entity has oversight over such changes or keeps a central record. The analysis revealed that in some counties, clerks are not able to cite old addresses and replace precinct lists. Mississippi Today also identified 92 polling locations that had been relocated since 2013. The secretary of state has a polling place locator that can help voters who are unsure where they should cast their ballots this November. Wright-Hart replied to Wright-Hart’s notice by saying that the DOJ had no comment. They told Wright-Hart to do what she wanted, but make sure to adhere to the guidelines. ‘Racially Polarized’ voting. Civil-rights advocates argue that precinct consolidation is an effective way for counties save money on elections. However, it may mean longer commutes for rural voters who lack transportation and longer lines at polls. These obstacles can be disproportionately burdensome for the poor and minorities. This is why civil-liberties advocates praised the Voting Rights Bill as a safeguard against voter suppression. It is unclear, based on limited information, whether poll closings in Mississippi (the state with the most black residents in the country) have had disparate racial effects at the ballot box. Tishomingo is the Mississippi county with the highest reduction in polling places, at 96 percent. This county of 19,500 people lost more than a quarter of its polling locations between 2014 and 2016, from 19 to 14. Officials did not reduce the number of polling places in three counties, Washington, Bolivar, which had both a large African American population and a declining one. Carroll Rhodes, an attorney representing the Mississippi NAACP, said that it is not known if closings have any adverse effect on African American voters. “It doesn’t matter if they are all in African American community or not because in African American community, many of them have limited income and transportation. It’s not a priority to get to the polls, and it’s also a financial burden.” Rhodes said that Mississippi residents also have greater difficulty voting than in any other state. According to a September study by Northern Illinois University, this is due to Mississippi’s registration deadline, which is a full month before Election Day. The 50th rank for Mississippi is due to several factors. These include the deadline for registration, which is one month before Election Day. Absence of mail-in or early voting. Also, the requirement of a voter ID. Holmes County, which is 83 per cent African-American, has closed 17 precincts. This consistently places it among the country’s poorest counties. Two polling stations were relocated by the county in the month leading up to the midterm elections. The November ballot will feature Democrats Mike Espy (ex-congressionman and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture) and Tobey Barrtee (black), against Republicans U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde Smith, ex-state agriculture commissioner and state senator Chris McDaniel who are both white. Since Reconstruction, Mississippi has not elected any black candidates to the U.S. Senate. This year’s turnout is expected be higher than usual for midterm elections. Leroy Johnson, cofounder of Southern Echo, an advocacy organization currently investigating whether state policies and poll closings are affecting Mississippi’s turnout. “Doing this work, being around this stuff 30 years, in terms election and running elections… I’ve learned all these things and it has made me very suspicious of why people do certain things. Nearly 100% of the time, they do it for political purposes and/or to affect certain outcomes.” The decrease in Mississippi’s total polling stations is despite the fact that several counties like DeSoto have added precincts over the past few years. VICE analysis shows that since Shelby, the Southeast and other jurisdictions which were once subject to federal oversight have closed almost 20 percent more polling stations per capita than any other part of the country. However, many of the election decisions, including those regarding polling locations and voting locations, are made at the local level. The Mississippi Secretary-of-State Delbert Hosemann stated that he is confident that voter suppression is not occurring here. Hosemann stated that “all politics are local.” This implies that county supervisors who approve polling locations have to make voting easy for constituents. Hosemann said that local political pressure is a good balance, without us having to weigh-in. Hosemann also stated that voter roll purges are handled by local election commissioners. His office is not involved. The state issued 6,700 ID cards to voters under a 2013 law that required them to show a valid photo ID when they went to the polls. Hosemann said this was a “huge plus” and pointed out that Mississippi has not been sued for its version of the law. According to the secretary-of-state’s office, Mississippi was not visited by federal observers for the first time since recent history in 2016, during the last presidential election. Hosemann said, “I’m certainly not denigrating our history… It’s terrible.” “That being said, we’ve changed a page.” ‘Rubber Stamp’ The state has 1,772 precincts today. However, the state doesn’t keep a list of historical precinct locations. The state only takes a snapshot of the precincts within each county during federal elections, and does not keep track of where they were closed. Mississippi Today reached out to all 82 counties of the state in order to determine where local officials have consolidated, relocated or closed polling places. We also wanted to map affected communities. Seven counties refused to comply with our request. Twenty-seven counties denied that they had made any changes to polling locations, even in cases that were false. Other counties relied on their institutional knowledge to determine what had changed and when. Mississippi Today was only able to map 55 of the 114 closings. Some advocacy groups have expressed skepticism about the Shelby decision due to the lack of transparency and data. Charles Taylor, an organizer and One Voice Mississippi’s political data manager, said that he is concerned about any way to suppress the vote. Convenient polling precincts and the new voter ID requirement, as well as counties with enough workers and ballots for Election Day are just a few of the concerns. Rhodes stated that efforts to make voting more difficult for African Americans who are more likely than others to vote for Democratic candidates began before the Shelby decision, but increased at an “astronomic pace” after the ruling. Randolph County in Georgia is a majority-black county. In August, local officials proposed closing 75 percent of its precincts. Voters’ commutes would be impacted by the closures, which would have increased their travel distances by approximately 10 miles. Officials claimed they were closing down the facilities due to infractions of the Americans with Disability Act. This is a common problem in rural counties. The closures were canceled by a local election board. This was just months before the governor ran. It also raised national concerns about voter suppression in minority communities. Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp is a white Republican who oversees elections. She faces Stacey Abrams who could be the first African-American woman governor, both in Georgia’s history and across the country. In the past six years, Georgia has closed 8% of its voting precincts. Hosemann stated that he has not received any complaint regarding a change or closure of a polling place in the twelve years he was in office. Hosemann also stated that he has never been able to identify any county that changed precincts for political reasons. However, the office does not have the authority to investigate every change. The county board of supervisors approves the location of polling stations. Generally, the county election commissioners make recommendations. Rhodes stated that the boards are often used as a “rubber stamp”, for commissioners. Officials from elections say that voters shouldn’t be concerned about polling places being moved or closed. Precinct changes in some cases could mean that county officials are making sure polling places make sense for today’s voters. For example, in Wilkinson County, voters once cast their ballots inside a building that was actually condemned. After gaining preclearance, the county moved that precinct. We need to find out where the closures are, so that we can discuss the effects. Johnson stated that although they may have great reasons to do it, now they don’t have to justify it. Johnson said. “That’s highly suspect when you live in Mississippi.” Budgets, logistics and population. County supervisors and election commissioners frequently cite budget constraints and shrinking populations as reasons to close a precinct. Demetria Jackson, Coahoma County Circuit Clerk, said that a Coahoma County precinct located at the Sherard Store, and Post Office was closed. It served “like 18-20 active voters.” Jackson said that sometimes there are only 10 (voters), and the county, which has a 75% African-American population, lost just one of its 19 polling stations since 2012. Voters at Orange Grove Elementary School in Gulfport’s West Lyman precinct waited in line for hours before they could enter the school. To accommodate more voters, Harrison County combined West Lyman with East Lyman. “I don’t know if it’s going to cause longer wait times, but they’ll be inside for those wait,” Becky Payne, Harrison County’s elections commissioner, said. The county has closed 12 precincts in total since 2012, more than any other county. Payne has made it a priority to move voting precincts from schools in order to ensure safety. Payne also mentioned situations where two precincts were so close together that it “just makes sense” to consolidate them and cut down on the cost of poll workers. Payne stated that county officials must consider many factors when moving polling places, including the quality of the facility and how far voters will need to travel. They also have to consider lighting and accessibility for handicapped people. Payne stated that even though you are not subject to the DOJ, it is still important to follow the same rules. You can’t go back to the old way. The Voting Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on race. Although the state law that governs precinct management can be vague, it requires county boards to record any precinct change on their minutes. It also states that precinct boundaries must “conform to visible natural and artificial boundaries such as streets or railroads, rivers or lakes, bayous, or other obvious lines delineation.” It would be up to the attorney general to enforce any laws. There are also emergency cases like the one in which Precinct 96’s polling location, Miracle Temple Evangelistic Church, South Jackson, was destroyed by fire on October 2. The temporary location of the precinct at Lakeshore Fire Station No. No. was approved by the Hinds County Board of Supervisors a week later. 22 is just one-fifth mile away. Yvonne Horton, Hinds County Election Commissioner, said that she requested the largest sign possible with directions to the fire department. She plans to place the sign outside the building’s charred remains. Since 2012, Hinds County closed nine precincts. All of them were in Jackson, where 81 percent are black. “No excuse” A report by the Leadership Conference Education Fund, a non-profit civil rights organization, was released in 2016. It highlighted Mississippi’s closing of polls. After Meridian was elected in 2013, its first black mayor, Percy Bland, the authors focused their attention on changes in polling places in Lauderdale County. Questions were raised about the county’s decision not to relocate precincts belonging to black churches (“including Mt. Olive Baptist, an iconic church that has a history of voting rights activism, was interviewed by Jeff Tate, Mississippi Today’s Election Commissioner. Tate said that the church repeatedly requested that its facility be not used for polling purposes. Tate stated that it was not in the best interests of voters for the precincts to continue moving about. Mississippi Today did not receive calls from officials at the church. The 44 percent-black county moved the precinct to the Mt. Olive Baptist Church will remain permanently. Lauderdale has one the highest rates for changing polling places. Since Tate’s election, the county has consolidated its precincts consistently over the past decade. The county’s number of precincts has increased from 54 to 40 during Tate’s tenure. Five closures were precleared by the Justice Department. Tate stated that 54 precincts was a wasteful use of taxpayer money. Voters may need to travel up to 10 miles to reach Meehan, which is the largest precinct in the county. Tate stated that the majority-white precinct was as large as the whole City of Meridian. Tate stated that the Meehan precinct located at the Meehan Fire Station has the highest turn out and that if they can get to the polls, then there is “no excuse not to be able vote” in any precinct. Mississippi Today found instances in which reports from the circuit clerk’s offices did not match records of the secretary of state. Although Rankin County’s Circuit clerk stated that it had not moved or closed any polling sites in the past five years, state records indicate that the county added six precincts from 2012 to 2014, and then removed nine precincts from 2014 to 2018, resulting in a net loss for three precincts. When a county board of supervisors makes a change, they must send the minutes of their meetings to the secretary of states’ office. Mississippi Today reviewed records from 2016 to see if the office keeps them for more than two years. Smith County Board of Supervisors in September sent notice to both the secretary of state’s and, though not required, to the U.S. Department of Justice advising each agency of a precinct relocate due to a building that was in poor condition. The board received attached affidavits from an electoral commissioner and a county supervisor. Both of these individuals identified themselves as African Americans in the affidavits. Each affidavit states that “I don’t feel that moving the site… will inconvenience voters of North Raleigh voting precinct.” “This move is necessary, and is not intended to inconvenience voters.
This far. Sometimes, counties only sent one sheet of paper to the secretary state explaining the changes. Panola County sent two orders to the secretary of state from May 2018 and July 2018, which contained the vote to consolidate precincts, but didn’t explain why. Tate stated that he makes sure Lauderdale County’s precinct closings and relocations don’t burden voters by “just applying common sense.” This story was contributed by Erica Hensley, Michelle Liu and Adam Ganucheau. To support this important work, you can make a regular donation to the Spring Member Drive today.