HINDS COUNTY, Miss. (WJTV) – Voters, candidates and advocates attended a public comment session on Tuesday before the meeting of the Hinds County Election Commission.

Commissioners heard from the public for more than an hour, and tempers flared as advocates voiced their frustrations with the November General Election. Ballot shortages caused chaos and confusion on the evening of the statewide election.

Former District 4 Supervisor candidate Allison Clower Lauderdale addressed Commission Chairwoman Yvonne Horton directly in her public comment.

“I have had a couple, they were 80 years old. They’ve never in their day of life since they were able to vote, missed a vote until November 7 because they were too tired of waiting in line. And every time they got ballots, they’ve got ballots, 40 ballots. That goes like that. Am I angry? You better believe I’m angry. I don’t care that I lost. It’s how we lost. It’s how we lost, and I’m looking at all of y’all, primarily you Miss Horton, because it happened in District 4, out of the 13 precincts that you had, and this is what y’alls job is,” said Lauderdale.”

In the Nov. 7 general election, up to nine voting precincts in Hinds County ran out of ballots. The county is majority-Black and is a Democratic stronghold. People waited up to two hours to vote as election officials made frantic trips to office supply stores so they could print ballots and deliver them to polling places. It’s unclear how many people left without voting or the political affiliations of most impacted voters.

Two days later, the county’s election commissioners, all Democrats, said they used the wrong voter data to order ballots. As a result, they did not account for the changes that went into effect after the legislative redistricting process in 2022.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.