Political expert explains how elections are properly managed

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Voting will be coming to a close in about an hour.

And the turnout in most precincts around here has been strong.

Although polls close at 7 p.m., votes can still come in by mail until November 15.

There have been cases where mailed-in absentee ballots changed the trajectory of a race.

A political science professor tells me why this could cause some tension in the world of local politics.

Polls all across the viewing region are reporting a big influx of voters or high voter turnout.

“These are good problems to have,” said Dr. Brian Anderson, the Dean of Arts and Sciences at Mississippi University for Women.

He specializes in political science.

Anderson said most county and state officials should be aware their county population is evolving and what motivates people to show up.

“You have a 12-hour window in the day. And it’s also a question of when they’re all gonna show up. A lot of people want to get there first thing on their way to work, so they need extra volunteers at that time. It’s gonna be really slacked off during that time of the day and then bunched up again around dinner time. So they know this, they just need to make sure they have the assets in place to handle it,” said Anderson.

More anxiety could come into play in the form of absentee ballots.

Absentee ballots have to be mailed by election day, meaning they may not show up until days after the polls have closed.

The election commissioners have to certify each individual ballot.

Anderson cautions this delayed gratification can cause some tension in a close race.

“There’s always gonna be a concern that in a close race, some surprise ballots come in at the last minute after election day, makes it that much tenser because it just seems like ‘well the newspaper went ahead and reported subject to further ballots coming in, this person seems to be winning but you know but we’ve got a half bag full of absentee ballots in the few days after elections,” said Anderson.

He says officials need to be able to properly explain the election process to mitigate doubt in a race.

“You need cooler heads on the election commission, especially in these close races to be able to tell people there’s no mysterious things going on here, no backroom switch-a-roo going on. This is a straightforward process. We’ve been doing this for a long time. It’s just that when you have a close election, people might think something’s amiss, something’s going on.

We’ll have election coverage throughout the night here on WCBI, on Facebook Live, and on our webpage. Stay tuned.

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