Election officials said no to some inactive voters and news cameras at one voting precinct on Election Day, but the voters were ultimately able to cast affidavit ballots, officials said. Otherwise, no other major issues were reported with voting in Pike County on Tuesday, officials said.
The issue surfaced at the voting precinct at the Southwest Mississippi Community College Workforce Training Center.
Yvette Carroll posted on Facebook her experience with being turned away from voting.
“Well, I went to Southwest College this morning and they turned me away, saying that I was not registered. Well, that was a laugh because I went to the courthouse and Magnolia three weeks ago because I was inactive and I signed my paper to be active,” she wrote.
Carroll wrote that she contacted the circuit clerk’s office and was able to vote by affidavit ballot after she returned to the polls.
A county official confirmed that Carroll wasn’t the only one affected.
“They didn’t know why Southwest was turning so many people away that it was registered,’ Carroll wrote. “So if you got turned away, go back, tell them to call the courthouse and then you can vote. I went back and just got through voting. Share this if you wish.”
Circuit Clerk Brenda Denise Robinson said inactive voters who hadn’t participated in recent elections showed up at other voting precincts as well, but they were only turned away at the Workforce Training Center.
“We took care of all that,” she said. “We’re willing to work the best way we can to get the situation resolved. We’re going to do our due diligence.’
Robinson said it’s important for voters to keep their addresses updated with the circuit clerk’s office, not only for election and voting issues but to receive jury duty summonses.
Robinson said there were no other issues reported with the elections process as of early Tuesday afternoon.
Election results weren’t available by presstime.
In another matter, poll workers turned away news cameras at Pike County precincts on Tuesday.
The Enterprise-Journal and other Mississippi media outlets routinely cover elections with photography, and TV stations, newspapers and wire services all across Mississippi were allowed to cover the election inside voting precincts on Tuesday.
While signs clearly say photography is not allowed inside voting precincts, the state has carved out exceptions for photojournalists.
An attorney general’s opinion from April 2008 says, “We are of the opinion that the practice of allowing television crews to briefly tape the activities at polling places may continue, provided the personnel operating the cameras do not cause any intimidation or disturbance and limit such taping to only a few minutes.”
The AG’s opinion says the presence of filming inside a voting precinct “can be intimidating to voters and should not be allowed on a continuing basis. However, we have also informally advised that a brief video recording of a polling place which would not be disruptive to an election should be allowed.”
Pike County Board of Supervisors Attorney Brandon Frazier said Tuesday afternoon that he agreed with the opinion and that news cameras should be permitted inside polling places — albeit briefly — and he would send a memo to elections officials stating that.
