For the first time ever, Mississippi voters had to show an ID to vote in the presidential election. Hinds County leaders used ID scanners to speed up long lines at the polls. “We have scanners that will scan the driver’s licenses and automatically pull out the voter’s name so they don’t have to manually go in and look for it,” election commissioner Connie Cochran said. But the ID scanners are only as good as the poll workers using them. Scanner problems might have cost a Jackson woman her vote because poll workers told her that her granddaughter had already voted using the woman’s name. “She had her ID and everything, but when the machine pulled it up, it pulled up my name (and) she didn’t know,” said the woman, who asked that her name not be used.
“She went and voted this morning. When my grandmother came, they were telling my grandmother, ‘You already voted.’ So how can a 31-year-old woman get mixed up with the lady that is 67 years old? How does that happen? It makes no sense,” said the woman’s grandson, Otha Windom.
The woman ended up voting by affidavit.
“It shouldn’t have happened if they had proper ID,” Cochran said. “It could be a lack of understanding on the part of the poll worker that didn’t understand.”
Full Article: ID scanners called into question by voters.