Jackson Jambalaya

Yuppers. Looks like Gerhardt Gippert better go ahead and announce for Light Gub.

Computer software can purge them......right?

So who is saying there are so many votes that were removed and spreading these “lies”?

Called for Scott

Watson blowing holes in his own ship. The reporting already shows a dip in the poll books earlier this year from his terrible Experian deal. He won't win this blaming the blue hairs.

He's right that the Election Commissioners are the ones who do the voter roll maintenance. But his office has the one selling the NCOA and Experian data as the end-all-be-all of voter roll integrity. It's little wonder that the county officials -- who are part-time workers -- just accepted what he sent.

He's been trying to score political points selling himself as the Champion of Election Integrity without having to show anything for it. Instead of treating those county officials as partners in the process, he is dismissive of them. Until he needs them to go under the bus in his place.

Stupid is as stupid does!

What he says computes with what we know so far. They were removed from the poll books but still on the electronic voter roll. If not in the poll books (which are prepared anew for each election) they were allowed to vote affidavit. Mississippi Today has videos of election workers taking the affidavits and searching for the voters on the roll. Had they been removed from the voter roll, this would have been useless but workers were finding them on the roll. It was a disaster but the voters weren't removed from the rolls if what I'm seeing pans out. Most of the people commenting on the fiasco aren't familiar with the details.

Again - the poll books are not the same as the voter rolls.

OK Mr. Watson, it was only 229,999. Sorry

If it wasn't 230K, then how many was it? He certainly should know.

So sad

If even 1/4 of 230,000 eligible Mississippi voters, or people who believed they were and wanted to be Mississippi voters, of any race or political persuasion showed up to vote and were turned away, all sorts of hell would have broken out before the polls closed. And every news outlet in the state along with all manner of national and non-local outlets would have had numerous stories about it.

Anyone on the rolls who was dead and the actual dead person showed up to vote would have been "unusual." Folks whose names might still be on the rolls but have moved away and they are now registered and voting elsewhere or just don't vote anywhere wouldn't have been trying to vote here. Even if 230,000 eligible voters who did not try to vote had been removed in some idiotic conspiracy, but with no ballot allegedly cast by them recorded, it would not and could not have affected any election for any office. Not counting votes that were not cast by people who could not or did not vote is not some genius-level-4-D-chess way to rig an election. Actually thinking someone would do it is even stupider than trying to do it.

Fake news is what you call news when it is accurate but someone doesn’t agree so it is fake. I guess it could have an alternative factual basis!

Is Gibbert actually thinking of running? I don't agree with Gibbert on anything but I have ruled out ever supporting Watson.

507, yes, you are ccorrect - and you are doing a good job of parrotting Watson as he tries to play 'cover my ass' with the voting public.

Nobody was REMVOED from the voting rolls, but there were 230,000 people removed from the ACTIVE VOTING ROLL and therefore could not cast a regular ballot on election day (or for that matter, an absentee ballot prior to the election.

Those voters were put on an Inactive list which meant their name was not on the poll book in the precinct that the poll workers use to provide a ballot to the voter. Their names were still in the system; hell, as Watson said even if you are purged (that is, permanently barred from voting without reregistering to vote) your name remains IN THE SYSTEM but only to tell the election officials that you cannot vote.

Watson's claim today is a great attempt at passing the buck - blaming the news media for using a term that is common among the public - your name was removed from the voter rolls is what many voters were told when they had to cast an affidavit ballot. They were told this by poll workers - election officials - because thats the common term; even though as Watson hids behind the techicality that the name is still on the foll but just in a different category.

It wasn't FAKE NEWS, and damn I would have thought Watson smart enough to not hide behind the Trump crap after he saw the drubbing that Trump just gave to all his adherents. But no, scream about the media in trying to divert attention away from this disaster he created..

Those voters were removed from the ACTIVE VOTER ROLL Mr. Secretary, and therefore they were harmed. Yes, there was a fail-safe out in the affidavit process but the affidavit process was not intended to have to react to such a disaster. Many voting places ran out of the envelopes because nobody anticipated nearly this many affidavit ballots being cast. Voters had to wait in long lines to get to the sign-in manager only to be told they had to vote by affidavit and then put into another long line that moves extremely slow.

Man up Mr. Secretary. Admit that you, or your office, or your advisors, or whoever that led you down this path --- screwed up. Be like Harry Truman and say "The Buck Stops Here" instead of trying to blame the Election Commissioners in the counties because they didn't double check what you pushed down their throats as the best thing since sliced bread to insure integrity..

“is not some genius-level-4-D-chess way to rig an election”

Nobody’s saying Michael Watson has discovered a dimension beyond space and time.

We’re saying he pulled a political stunt with voters in this election, and we’re pissed off about it.

“If you want to make enemies, try to change something.”
- Woodrow Wilson

I'm not parroting anything or even trying to make excuses for this debacle. I just can't find anywhere an explanation of what happened. Not a single news outlet seems to understand the difference between the poll books and the voting rolls even though an inquiring mind would want to know how affidavit ballots from "purged" voters end up being counted. People on social media are screaming fraud when they don't know what they are talking about. Colom won which means that the person who was probably most impacted by this has no reason to sue. This was a complete fuck up. But, c'mon, any discussion or expressions of outrage need to be based on reality.

Most vote fraud is perpetrated by those who count the votes and not a bunch of Mexicans in an old brown Chrysler driving from polling place to polling place. The latter takes too much time and gas money. But the pols have to look like they’re doing something (or “fighting” for something — politicians do a lot of “fighting” with their “distinguished colleague” or their “good friend on the other side”), so they made a law such that you have to show ID to the pollworker, who happens to have been your high school classmate. Stalin was right at least once when he purportedly said it doesn’t matter who votes but who counts the votes. Vote fraud is an inside job.

Seriously? Have you seen all the people claiming fraud with regard to the JSU affidavit ballots that weren't counted? All of the election commissioners in charge of that process are black.

Some of you really, really need to learn how our voting system works. Go to your county clerk's office. They will be more than happy to educate you. All voting is local. I'm sure you can get information from the state offices as well. If you want to get some laws changed, get out of your lounge chair or bar seat! Or get at least your GED.

"Have you seen all the people claiming fraud with regard to the JSU affidavit ballots that weren't counted?"

Speaking of which, as is being reported by numerous media outlets, there were 212 Jackson State students’ ballots rejected because: "Six were registered in another county, 18 were cast at the wrong precinct,188 were not registered to vote."

Yep, sounds like one of those vast right-wing conspiracies we hear so much about. 24 would-be voters were the inarguable sole and direct cause of their inability to have their vote counted. Even if there was some conspiracy to mislead the remaining 188 on the requirements so as to disenfranchise them, the correct information was still widely and readily available. It would have been like trying to convince half the folks at the picnic that it wasn't raining.

But to the direct allegation of removing names, it would have been a real feat for Watson or anyone else to remove would-be voters from a list they were never even on. I won't defend Watson on much, but I will say he cannot be guilty of THAT.

The ignorance is deplorable.

Gerard is going to announce for Gov not LG

Well Watson did his best to clean up our bad voting data after decades of no one stepping up or attempting to fix anything. The local commissioners know their districts, if they were doing their job, Watson or any of those before him would not need to undertake automated verification. Even with that, the local commissioners could have moved each and every one back to active, then continue not doing their job.