What voting officials are saying about Election Day after Zeta ravages MS Coast
There’s a critical deadline for South Mississippi to regain power following Hurricane Zeta: Election Day.
The Secretary of State’s office said in a press release Friday afternoon that it is working with county circuit clerks to provide assistance as needed. Thousands of people across South Mississippi remain without power, and Mississippi Power said Friday that some customers in cities across Hancock and Harrison County likely won’t regain power until late Monday.
But so far, the power outages have not resulted in any changes to the slate of voting precincts in the three coastal counties.
Circuit clerks told the Sun Herald on Friday that power companies have said they’re doing their best to restore power to polling locations as quickly as possible.
“I have notified the power companies that we need electricity at all of our voting precincts for Tuesday’s election,” said Kendra Necaise, Hancock County circuit clerk. “I’m sure they will comply with that but just in case we do have generators that will be available so voters will be able to cast their ballots.”
Harrison County Circuit Clerk Connie Ladner said that officials have been visiting the county’s polling locations to make sure they aren’t damaged and will be safe to use on Tuesday.
Ladner said power company officials have told her they’re aiming to restore power to voting locations by Sunday.
The power companies themselves largely sounded optimistic on Friday.
“We’re actually anticipating being substantially done with restoration of services by Sunday evening,” said April Lollar, director of communications for Coast Electric. “Definitely want to get this done before election day.”
Lore Freeman, manager of public relations for Singing River Electric, said she had not been alerted to any issues at the polls.
“We don’t anticipate any problems,” she said.
On Friday, all circuit clerks offices in the six lower counties were open for in-person absentee voting, which ends at 5 p.m. on Saturday. The circuit clerks’ offices in George, Jackson, Pearl River and Stone Counties had power and were operating as usual. The circuit clerks in Harrison and Hancock County didn’t have power, but were still open for absentee voters.
Kendra James, communications director for the secretary of state, said the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency has offered to provide generators to county election officials as necessary. She said it was too early to say how many precincts might need that assistance and how much it might cost to guarantee electricity for normal procedures on Election Day.
“Counties are still assessing the impact of Hurricane Zeta,” she said. “We will release more information on polling places and precincts once we have a more in-depth report from the counties.”
James said people who have left their homes due to storm damage can vote absentee, either in-person at their circuit clerk’s office or via mail.
But voting absentee via mail requires submitting a request, and mail-in absentee ballots must be returned by mail as well. By the time someone requests an absentee ballot and application, receives it, completes it and mails it back to their circuit clerk’s office, they may well miss the Nov. 10 deadline for absentee ballots to be counted.
This story was originally published October 30, 2020 at 4:25 PM.
