Over the past several years we have witnessed unfortunate issues surrounding voting, voter rolls, and voter registration in Oktibbeha County, culminating with the most recent Starkville Municipal Primary Elections where myriad issues occurred, most notably 1,480 address inconsistencies.
While we know that Municipal Elections are under the purview of the City Clerk and Municipal Election Commission, Municipal elections rely on the Oktibbeha County Circuit Clerk’s office for essential services regarding the Statewide Election Management System (SEMS), including updates to the voter rolls and voter registration cards. We have noticed recurrent issues over the past years as well as issues specific to this most recent election. These issues erode our elections’ system and the voters’ trust in elections which affect everyone from the voters to City and County Election Commissioners and Clerk’s Offices to the Secretary of State’s Office and the candidates who run for positions within Oktibbeha County. We understand that almost every aspect of our elections has a human component and humans are fallible; however, we believe too many of these issues come from a lack of clear responsibilities and checks and balances within the system or a lack of desire for accuracy and expediency within our local elections.
For example, over the past few years we have found that many affidavit ballots could be avoided by having voter registrations entered in a timely manner. We understand that this can be difficult, especially during the final days to register before an election. However, SEMS entries can be backdated. Registrations should be entered into SEMS as active the day it was stamped “received” not when it is entered into the system, which in many cases is days later. Oktibbeha County had over 900 affidavit ballots in the November 2024 election. Over 100 of those affidavits could have been avoided by entering accurately into SEMS the voter registration date so that voters showed up on voter rolls. Additionally, many registrants leading up to the 2024 Presidential Election, as well as the most recent Municipal Primary Election did not receive updated voter registration cards before the election, if at all.
The Starkville Municipal Primary Election, held on April 1, 2025, was wracked with voter roll issues, from misnumbered houses to entire municipal roads registering as being in the county, to people living within a new ward map but not showing up on poll books, to a lack of updated voter registration cards over a year after changes were made.
To summarize the issues discussed in a recent Dispatch article, the City of Starkville re-districted and annexed new areas after the 2020 census. In 2023, the city contracted with the Golden Triangle Planning and Development District (GTPDD) to change the maps and work with the Oktibbeha County Circuit Clerk’s office to enter the changes into SEMS. We understand that a large part of the problem is that street numbering in the city is not regulated, and SEMS works with ranges of numbers. The range system is not as useful if the city street numbering is not regulated, creating voter rolls that do not align with the maps.
Our concern is that this is not a new issue or new knowledge. Previous elections have had some similar issues based on a disconnect between the map and the numbering, but not to the level of the 1,480 address issues that had to be fixed AFTER the April 1, 2025, Municipal Primary Election.
If the GTPDD knows that the numbers do not always align with the map, common practice should be to walk the map to ensure accurate rolls–before the elections instead of after a catastrophic failure.
Additionally, the Democratic Party Municipal Election Commission Chair was told by the Circuit Clerk’s office that Municipal Election issues are the concern of the Municipal Clerk and Municipal Election Commission, which we confirmed through a review of MS Code as it relates to Municipal Elections; however, statutorily the City Clerk has read-only access in SEMS. We see this as an issue for two reasons: 1. The city must rely on the Circuit Clerk’s office to properly maintain SEMS updates as they relate to Municipal Elections. 2. Only allowing Circuit Clerks and County Election Commissioners access to work in SEMS breaks the chain of responsibility for Municipal Elections as laid out in MS Code Title 23. Elections § 23-15-221. This creates a catch- 22 scenario, in which election errors can only be addressed inadequately post-election via lawsuits, which impoverish municipal, county and regional treasuries, and drive-up local taxes. We believe the Circuit Clerk’s office does not feel a responsibility to City elections. The buck must stop with the responsible individuals, and that responsibility must be clearly assigned and defined.
We assume that the statute removing City Clerks’ working access to SEMS was created to limit access to this important data base; however, this change also breaks the chain of responsibility for municipal elections as well as disallowing some checks and balances with SEMS. While we do believe that paid, approved, and trained employees should be the only ones entering important voter information, we also feel that this responsibility is too much work for one employee. Cross-training several deputized County and City employees on SEMS should be the minimal standard for even the smallest of counties, as elections are a mission and date critical operation.
When three parties are all partially, but not fully responsible for the accuracy of our pollbooks, then no one is fully responsible. In an election where fewer than 3,000 people voted, a mistake of 1,480 voter addresses is a catastrophic failure.
Regardless of our political leanings, we can all agree that the ability for someone to vote is one of our most important rights and freedoms, and that citizens’ trust in our elections process is of utmost importance. We understand that humans are fallible and that the work of elections is extensive with many moving parts. However, we believe the current system spreads out responsibility so that no one has responsibility which allows opening for fraud and creates an ineffective, inefficient electoral process. Therefore, we ask that our concerns be addressed openly and in a public manner.
Respectfully and with Kind Regards,
The Oktibbeha County Democratic Executive Committee, Ronald Hannah, Chair
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