Mississippi County Continues to Have More Registered Voters than People

The Public Interest Legal Foundation and the American Civil Rights Union have brought a federal lawsuit against Noxubee County, Mississippi over its corrupted voter registration rolls. Noxubee County is the fourth county in Mississippi to be sued over corrupt voter registration rolls.

The complaint, found here, alleges a violation of Section 8 of the National Voter Registration Act in that the Noxubee County Election Commission failed to maintain the county's voter rolls. The impetus for the lawsuit was the revelation that the county has more registered voters than it does living citizens.

The American Civil Rights Union tried to resolve the issue in 2014 when it sent a letter to the Noxubee County Election Commission which described the potential violations and asked for a review. The commission never responded to the letter and, given the county's history further action was necessary. These problems are not new as Noxubee County had 113% of citizens registered to vote as early as 2010. 

Failing to clean up the voter rolls creates the opportunity for voter fraud and is a serious problem. As Joseph Vanderhuslt of the Public Interest Legal Foundation put it: "[c]orrupted voter rolls provide the perfect environment for voter fraud. Failure to clean the rolls aggravates longstanding problems of voter fraud in Noxubee. Mississippians should not have to wonder if their legitimate vote was cancelled by a vote cast by an illegitimate vote in Noxubee County next year."