The Hinds County Election Commission has been catching hell lately for its failure to provide enough ballots for the November election. The Commissioners in turn squawk they weren't properly trained. Posted below is the Secretary of State's training schedule for Election Commissioners. JJ obtained the schedule through a public records request (that your support paid for. ;-)).
The commissioners attended all training sessions and yes, split precincts are discussed in training. However, it is not known who attended the weekly conference calls during election season as the Secretary of State does not require registration for them. Keep in mind, Hinds County Election Commission Vice-Chairman Jermel Clark has been serving as Election Commissioner for over a decade so he should know about split precincts.
However, the voters have no right to complain. They kicked out Connie Cochran, who was the only one trained on SEMS and the computer system. They had a very capable Election Commissioner in Rene Shakespeare but they turned her out in favor of Jermel even though his sentences aren't that complex in structure or vocabulary. They voted for dummies and that is what they got, dummies. Hell, one former Election Commissioner told JJ that two Commissioners would literally sleep through the training. You read that correctly. It gets even better. Yours truly one time got into it with the Election Commission five or so years ago when it tried to go into executive session to discuss, wait for it, the budget. You read that correctly. A threat of going immediately to the Ethics Commission stopped them from doing so.
However, back to the issue at hand. The Secretary of State includes the split precincts in the training provided to Election Commissioners. Split precincts are common across Mississippi. Indeed, 20 of Madison County's 43 precincts are split and Madison County had no problems with split precincts on election day.
As Michael Watson said, 81 counties ran their elections with no problems. There is only one problem and it is the dummies who sit on the Hinds County Election Commission and that, my friends, is the bottom line.
33 comments:
Heads should roll.
I hope NONE of the commenters on this thread are going to say they're surprised or that it's someone else's fault beside the current commissioners. Just like you said KF, you get what you vote for and elect. Period. Just like in computing: GIGO (Garbage in, garbage out)
Do you really need to do a thorough investigation into this to determine what happened? You can't train incompetent people to do a job that has rules, regulations and a deadline.
This is similar to the Jackson water/sewer collapse. You vote for incompetence and that is what you get. It's nobody's fault but the idiots in charge. The water/sewer wasn't racism, white flight, aging infrastructure. It was a lack of competence, management, work ethic, maintenance, capabilities, etc.
This issue is the same. The issue was election commissioners who aren't competent, didn't put in the work, didn't do their job.
It's Hinds County - 'nuf said.
The trouble is, the voters have no idea what election commissioners do. You would be surprised or maybe perplexed by the ignorance of so many people when it comes to WHAT rather than WHO they are voting for. Some think you must actually have certain qualifications or expertise just to run for an office. i.e. "They must be qualified otherwise they would not be allowed to run". So a person completely unable to perform the required duties can run for an office and WIN because the voters have no idea what the office requires. Our public schools have completely failed to provide these people with even a fundamental knowledge of simple civics. Therein lies the problem.
It’s not only the election commissioners, it’s their hired staff & Election Day workers. The BoS should speak up- and maybe the newly elected BoS will force the issue of training & competence for those managing elections in Hinds county.
Why do counties have split precincts? Why not just split off the new precinct?
I know there is an old expression that says "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence", but these 100% Democratic, 100% African American Election Commissioners happened to ONLY run out of ballots at the Clinton and Byram precincts that vote Republican - the only ones in the county that do. That seems statistically impossible without malice of forethought or at least malice to take advantage when the situation happened. The fact that a judge was immediately ready to open ALL of the Hinds County Precincts until 8:00 or 9:00PM when only the Republican ones had problems seems like a big coincidence, too.
Of course a few other precincts had problems for 5-15 minutes, so now they can say 9 had problems in total, and the national story will be "black voter suppression in Mississippi", but everyone close to the situation should understand and correct that narrative - except for those who want to keep that narrative going.
Jermal, you big dummy!
This is what happens when you have an apathetic, uneducated electorate. The people that should be serving in public positions are too busy making money and raising kids. The lazy, ignorant power hungry idiots that are left run for “free gov money” offices and then everyone wonders why nothing is done right (or at all).
I'm surprised and you can't take those words away from me.
I'm surprised the problems in Hinds County weren't any worse than they were.
They need to buy a lot of clues before next time or it WILL be worse.
Hinds County voters don’t vote for competency. Everyone in America should know that.
Damn good article and statement of facts KF !!
You get what you vote for Hinds County. Sorry, but, not sorry.
Seems odd that the boxes where most of the problems occurred were the ones that had a strong republican running.
Incompetents sucking the taxpayers dry for a job they cannot be bothered to even learn to do. True to their mindset they get rid of the competent so their lack of intelligence is not so obvious. Public education and government is rife with these idiots.
Hijacking post: Happening in Greenwood, MS now. Majority of board of supervisors have given a contract to out of state relative(to one of the supervisors) ways to save the Greenwood-Leflore hospital. Except Greenwood already did that and shared the information with supervisors weeks before they voted their wasted $60,000 contract. Now supervisors are busy filing a law suit to rid the hospital board of a board member who was kept on after his term expired. They want to replace him with the former education superintendent, Margie Pulley. This is in order to have a majority to oust Gary Marchand, current hospital director. Not sure how they have any plan to save hospital, other than shortsighted agenda to show city of Greenwood they are the 3 most powerful men in Leflore county. And they were the-elected. Meanwhile Greenwood is losing the hospital and one of the county’s main employers.
Pretty sure they get compensated for their time spent in training, which is the only reason they go. There should be a test.
11:34 wrong! The commissioners should ensure that enough ballots are printed for each precinct. Nobody else. It is not that hard.
How are election commissioners compensated?
Hinds County should know by now it has a target on its back due to its “minority” leadership and that whether changes are made right before an election, that require training, they had better be on it if they do NOT want to shoulder the blame for any issues, that day! They’ll be conveniently blamed for any hiccups. Great care should be taken during voting, but running out of ballots is a bit much. For a highly contested governor’s race, everyone who wanted to vote, should have been able to. I’ve heard each side's comment regarding this matter, and I’ll say Hinds County, you got jammed.
@1:14 PM
Zuck Bucks!
Forgot already?
@ Bill Dees "Why do counties have split precincts? Why not just split off the new precinct?"
How exactly is a rainbow made?
How exactly does the sun set?
How exactly does the Posi-Trac rear end on a Plymoth work?
Why does Bennie Thompson's district line jerrymander the white part of Madison County out?
It just does.
It Just does.
New reality TV show coming to Amerika-"You can't make this stuff up 39201"
I find it hard to believe it takes 7 meetings to teach even the illiterate employees how to count votes and how to order and deliver enough for their respective voting areas. By the same thought, who but an illiterate would do that job.
2:17 PM - This answers one of your questions.
"How exactly does the Posi-Trac rear end on a Plymouth work?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpX9dBglvVw
It’s hilarious the ms poor peoples campaign wants an explanation why the ballots were messed up as if it’s the states fault. Saying it’s republicans fault
Too funny!!! All of these people are morons!!!
Posi-traction, or limited slip differential, is a myth.
I too will want heads to roll if those elected failed in their duties .
But, there is a very ugly little secret that I hear about from friends here and across the country.
When an elected official loses these days, they destroy all the records of their office. They essentially end "institutional knowledge". One party started it and now it's part of the game of nasty politics.
Our country had, for hundreds of years, passed knowledge along. Now we've got a " reinvent the wheel" method of operation.
That's how insane our " take no prisoners" politics has become. It's now also " scorched earth".
3:28 am Yep...but you are missing the point which was those who made the arrests knew generally about cars, but the critical details that mattered in the case.
Most of political commentary is from those who (to use your analogy) never even visited to a car factory, much less, studied the difference between cars on the assembly line.
Frankly, we could require a class for poll workers long ahead of the election that is held at the precinct. Some folks are visual learners and some learn better by hearing. But, first you have to have a good teaching system. Frankly, the one described sounds a bit hap hazard.
One Hinds County election commissioner this November stole a Republican poll watcher’s phone. The owner tracked it back to her office. While the people working there were adamant she did not have the phone, said poll watcher called it from his smart watch and heard it ring down the hall. He got it back. A security guard said it was turned into him but couldn’t remember who.
December 9, 2023 at 3:28 AM, wrong.
The whole set up was messed up with the ballots. I feel that Secretary of State had a lot to do with this. Open investigation did to be done. Majority of Hinds County is African American and they stood in long lines to get Tater Tote out . People have to work to feed their families.
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