Cindy Hyde-Smith was the name on the text Hinds County voters received at 5:03 p.m. on the eve of the midterm elections, even as the county’s voter information website was not working and its election phone number had been disconnected. Zack Wallace, the Hinds County Circuit Clerk, told registered voters the polls are open Tuesday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and sent them to the county’s voter-information link.
Hinds County link and phone line
That link opened to a blue screen with a small box reading “U.S. NeXt: Website Coming Soon.” The Hinds County website has been down since at least Oct. 20, 2026, and the Hinds County Election Commission phone number has been disconnected since at least Oct. 21, 2026.
The county information problem mattered because voters were being directed to official polling-place information just before Election Day. Hinds County is one of Mississippi’s most populous counties, and Jackson voters were among those unable to access the linked page on the eve of Election Day.
Mississippi polling-place changes
Mississippi election officials changed 138 polling places since the 2024 election, including moves for 111 precincts, closures of 22 precincts and five new precincts. Wallace’s text therefore pointed voters to the official county route for election details at the same moment that route was not available.
The Mississippi Free Press informed Hinds County on Oct. 20, 2026, that its website was redirecting to a website belonging to a local mental health clinic. Later that day, the site began taking browsers to a 404 error page.
Voters in Jackson
Grace E. Marion said the county link was inaccessible on the eve of Election Day, while calls to county offices also failed. A call to the Hinds County Board of Supervisors office at 5:34 p.m. yielded no answer, and a call to the Hinds County Circuit Clerk’s office at 6:10 p.m. rang for about two minutes before hanging up.
For voters, the practical takeaway is narrow and immediate: the county’s text message still pointed to a polling-information link that was not functioning, so anyone relying on that route had to look elsewhere before polls opened Tuesday morning. The website and phone line had already failed by the time Wallace told voters the polls would be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
