Black voters face polling problems in Mississippi and Georgia as high-stakes midterms unfold

Registration verification problems, misleading text messages and ballot scanner malfunctions are creating challenges for voters across the US.

While millions of Americans participated in early voting this year, a number of voters across the country are facing trouble at polls when trying to cast their ballots for the 2026 midterm elections. 

Black Voters Matter and local organizations on the ground are reportedly fielding voter-related issues in several counties in Mississippi, where officials report heavy turnout in the midterm elections. In counties like Holmes, Sunflower, Bolivar, and Hinds (Jackson), some voters reported issues verifying their registration when attempting to cast their ballots in person.

While experts are unclear whether the origins of these issues are tied to backed-up county clerk offices or missed submission deadlines, the issue is notable as Mississippi is one of the few states that doesn’t offer early voting, a barrier that experts have called out for years. 

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“They have said [early voting] would be too strenuous on the circuit clerk’s office [and that there are] not enough resources for them. 
We’ve also heard, ‘well, we don’t want fraud involved,’” Cassandra Welchlin, executive director of the Mississippi Black Women’s Roundtable, told 19th News. “Organizations like ours and others have been working to get early voting [in Mississippi].
If we did that, I believe you would have more voter turnout, which means that people will have an opportunity to vote for who they want to vote for that can change the tides of things and change what their kitchen tables look like.”  

In Georgia’s Fulton County, voters reported receiving text messages falsely alerting them to polling location changes, which election officials say they did not send, per WJCL News. Additionally, election officials in Fulton County, as well as in Westchester County, N.Y., Broward County, F.L., and Mississippi, have reported malfunctions in ballot scanners. 

While reports of ballot scanner glitches are typical on election day, voter registration issues in Mississippi and fraud texts in Fulton County have raised alarms, given the stakes in both states. This election season, Georgia could elect the country’s first Black female governor with Keisha Lance Bottoms, and Mississippi could elect its first Black U.S. Senator since Reconstruction with Scott Colom.