Thread by @ashtonpittman

NEW: Local Mississippi election officials have made at least 97 changes to polling places since the 2020 election, our investigation found.

But some weren't reflected in the state elections database that voters rely on for locating their polling place.
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Since 2020, county election officials in Mississippi have relocated precincts 63 times, closed 19 precincts and opened 12 new precincts.

At least 27 of those changes have happened since the June 2022 primaries.
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Unlike other states, Mississippi doesn't provide an updated lists of all polling places to the public.

To identify recent changes, @_wspittman and I made a public records request to the SOS and emailed or called election officials in all 82 counties.
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We found dozens of discrepancies between the polling place locations some county election officials had entered in the statewide elections database (SEMS) and the information they individually provided us by email, phone or on county websites.
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While examining the polling place information the county election commissioners had provided to the Mississippi Secretary of State's SEMS database, we also found 100+ precincts listed included no addresses, incorrect or incomplete addresses.
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We called Pike County officials to find the correct address for a single polling place. We received three addresses across three calls.

The officials ultimately "let go and and let Google" (as @_wspittman said) be the authority on the correct address.
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Some polling place changes were... hard to understand or explain.

This is one example of a polling place change that had us so confused, we weren't sure what happened at all.

We did our best to explain it as we could. Good luck.👇🏻
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While most local election officials we contacted were generous with their time and willing to help us sort through discrepancies and other sources of confusion, election officials in a small handful of counties did not respond, forcing us to rely on SEMS.
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In an Oct. 31 letter to local Mississippi election officials, a coalition of eight civil-rights groups noted that election commissioners are legally "responsible for submitting updates to SEMS regarding polling locations.”
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“Without accurate reporting, the Secretary’s poll locator will contain inaccurate information, and thousands of Mississippians rely on the poll locator to identify their polling location,” the coalition wrote in their letter to election officials.
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Secretary of State Michael Watson said he doesn't have the authority to issue the rules the civil rights groups want requiring local officials to provide timely and accurate polling place information because Mississippi is a “bottom-up state” for elections.mississippifreepress.org/28470/civil-ri…

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Also, please support our nonprofit newsroom by donating at mfp.ms/donate. Right now, your donations will be *TRIPLE-MATCHED.* #NewsMatch

The @BlackVotersMtr Fund provided support for this investigation and the research it entailed.
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