Hinds County, Mississippi Scrambles to Complete Poll Worker Training After September Cyber Breach

County officials regained access to their systems just in time for training ahead of critical state-level elections; additional issue arose with statewide election management system.

• Hinds County, Mississippi experienced a cyber breach in early September, causing a three-week-long inability to access their county computer systems, impacting the usual timeline for requisite poll worker training for the upcoming state-level elections.
• As a result of the breach, Hinds County officials had to fast-track the typically early October-completed poll worker training, working up to the deadline to finish.
• The cyber breach caused a brief delay in the county's ability to process voter registration forms, however, staff members used unaffected laptops to meet the October 10 deadline.
• Another issue emerged on October 26, when the secretary of state’s website was briefly inaccessible, preventing the verification of voter registration information for poll workers, further complicating the election preparation process.
• Despite the technological hiccup with the state's network, the issues were resolved and access to the statewide election management system was restored, ensuring that the county was "on track" for the general election.

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