COLUMBUS – A municipal election voting precinct opened 30 minutes late Tuesday morning because an election worker’s vehicle containing ballots was repossessed overnight.
The receiving and returning manager for the First Assembly precinct in Ward 3 signed for a sealed and locked ballot box at the city registrar’s office Monday evening and took it home. He was supposed to deliver the blank ballots by 6 a.m. Tuesday to the precinct, giving poll workers an hour to set up before voting was to begin at 7, Election Commissioner Julie Parker told The Dispatch.
But 6 a.m. came and went. There were no ballots.
“We couldn’t find him,” Parker said. “We couldn’t get him on the phone. When we finally did, he told us his car was gone that had everything in it. … Only in Columbus.”
Parker said new ballots arrived and voting began by 7:30. Jammie Garrett, chief operations officer for the city, said four voters left during that 30-minute gap but said they would return to vote before polls closed.
Garrett confirmed the election worker’s vehicle had been repossessed. She tracked it to a recovery yard in Columbus, where the election worker retrieved the ballot box and returned it to the registrar’s office.
It was still locked and did not appear to have been tampered with, Garrett said. Still, it is being kept separate from the other ballot boxes.
“We can’t use that one at all,” she said of the ballots and ballot box.
Receiving and returning managers taking ballots home the night before an election is standard practice, with boxes going home with poll workers for all 13 Columbus precincts Monday night, both Parker and Garrett confirmed. City Clerk Lesa Hardin confirmed Starkville sent ballots home with poll workers Monday to deliver to the city’s seven precincts Tuesday morning without issue.
Election workers in Columbus make $200 on election day, plus $30 for each day of training. Garrett said the election worker was working the polls at First Assembly on Tuesday and will be paid for the day.
Parker, however, spoke to the training they all received.
“We train them on how they are not supposed to let this box out of their sight,” she said. “They’re supposed to bring it in their house and take care of it and bring it back at 6 in the morning.”
Elizabeth Jonson, a spokesperson with the Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office, said the office is aware of the issue. While she said there are “no consequences” for any individuals involved, the incident could result in an election challenge.
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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