Civil Rights Watch · Black News · November 7, 2026
Three stories this week point at the same question: who protects Black voters and Black neighborhoods when intimidation shows up? In Mississippi, the NAACP has sent 23 staff to help voters whose affidavit ballots could decide a U.S. Senate race. In Washington, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division resigned. And in central Ohio, Ku Klux Klan flyers left near schools this fall show how cheaply the old fear tactics still travel.
- Mississippi: affidavit voters have until the end of the business day on Tuesday, November 10, 2026, to show ID or finish the cure process at their Circuit Clerk’s office.[2]
- The margin: NPR reported that as of mid-afternoon Friday, “more than 2,000 votes” separated Democrat Scott Colom and Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.[3]
- DOJ: Attorney General Todd Blanche said on Thursday that he accepted Harmeet Dhillon’s resignation. More than 75% of the Civil Rights Division’s staff left during her tenure.[5]
- Klan flyers: flyers attributed to the “Trinity White Knights” were found near schools in Worthington and Clintonville, Ohio, on September 28 and 29.[7]
The Story So Far
This continues our earlier coverage, “Scott Colom’s lead increases to over 2,000 votes ahead of Cindy Hyde-Smith in Senate race” (November 7), and the November 4 Civil Rights Dispatch. Election night ended without a winner in Mississippi. Since then the count has moved to the slow part: affidavit ballots, absentee ballots that can still arrive, and county election commissions under pressure from lawyers on both sides.
1. Mississippi: The Votes Still Being Counted
On November 5 the NAACP said it had deployed national legal, policy and field staff to Mississippi, “including 23 staff members spread across Jackson and Biloxi,” to help the NAACP Mississippi State Conference walk voters through ballot cure requirements.[1]
“Black voters in Mississippi did everything right. They registered, turned out, stood in line, and cast their ballots. Now the process has to do its part.”
Derrick Johnson, NAACP President and CEO[1]
Before the election, the state conference said it sent 1.4 million text messages, knocked on 150,000 doors in 40 counties, registered 17,258 voters and opened 11 offices.[1] The fight now is over which ballots get counted.
Why are there so many affidavit ballots? NPR reported that Mississippi “is one of the few states that makes those ‘inactive’ voters have to vote provisionally.” That means voters who were moved to inactive status fill out an extra form and wait for local officials to review it.[3] If the Colom campaign’s estimate of 15,000 affidavit ballots holds, NPR found, that would be roughly 1.5% of all ballots cast in the race. In 2022, only four states had a higher provisional rate.[3] Nobody knows the exact number left. Secretary of State Michael Watson said counties run their own elections and his office did not know how many provisionals remained.[3]
On November 6 the NAACP sent a letter to every county election commission in the state. It answered demands from attorneys at the Lex Politica law firm that, the NAACP says, “misrepresent state election law and threaten to disenfranchise voters.”[2] The letter says there is no legal authority to set valid affidavit ballots aside outside normal procedures. It also says no Mississippi or federal law lets Senate candidates open or examine ballot boxes on their own.[2]
“Every voter in Mississippi deserves to have their vote counted strictly according to the law”
Derrick Johnson, NAACP President and CEO[2]
2. The Justice Department: Who Enforces Civil Rights Now?
The same week Black voters’ ballots are under review, the federal office meant to protect them changed hands. On Thursday, Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote on X that he had accepted Harmeet Dhillon’s resignation and that she “led the Civil Rights Division with conviction the past 18 months.”[5]
CBS News reported that more than 75% of the division’s staff left under Dhillon. Under her, the division shifted toward other priorities, including gun owners’ rights and curbing diversity, equity and inclusion policies at universities.[5] In her resignation letter, seen by CBS News, Dhillon said she told White House chief of staff Susie Wiles in early October that she planned to leave after the midterms. Two sources told CBS that President Trump had demanded she be fired after an October 18 “60 Minutes” interview.[5] Those two accounts conflict, and neither has been confirmed on the record.
“Instead of protecting the civil rights of all Americans, she abandoned cases, purged the work force and weaponized the Division to target institutions to achieve illegitimate, partisan goals.”
Kristen Clarke, NAACP General Counsel[6]
Clarke led the same division before Dhillon. The NAACP’s statement lists what it calls Dhillon’s record, including “Abandoning Major Voting Rights Cases” and dropping police consent decrees. It says the group will keep “monitoring all enforcement activity within the Civil Rights Division.”[6] No successor had been named in the reports we reviewed.
3. Klan Flyers: Cheap Paper, Old Fear
In late September, Worthington police confirmed that flyers advertising the Ku Klux Klan were left in Worthington, Ohio, on a Monday night. WOSU confirmed more flyers the next morning in Columbus’s Clintonville neighborhood, near World Language Middle School and Indian Springs Elementary School.[7] The flyer showed a Klan member next to a Flock Safety license-plate camera and advertised a “Neighborhood Watch.”[7]
WOSU reported that the flyers were attributed to the “Trinity White Knights.” The station also reported that the group’s leader, William Bader, was cited in 2025 for littering after spreading similar flyers in Lincoln Heights, a historically Black village near Cincinnati.[7] According to WOSU, the Southern Poverty Law Center says groups like the Klan use flyers because they are cheap and low-risk, cause panic and make the group look larger and more organized than it is.[7]
“The Klan wants attention. If they truly wish to be acknowledged, they should take off the hoods, show their faces, and stand in the daylight.”
NAACP Columbus branch, via WOSU[7]
Worthington school leaders wrote that they had “no reason to believe the cowards who left these flyers plan to do any more than litter,” and that counselors and security teams were ready to support students and staff.[7] The link to the other two stories is intimidation itself. Hate crimes still land hardest on Black Americans: an NAACP resolution cites FBI figures of “approximately 3424 reported incidents in 2022” against Black Americans, by far the most of any group.[8]
What’s Disputed or Unconfirmed
- How many Mississippi ballots remain. The Colom campaign cited more than 15,000 provisional ballots, and the state Republican chair suggested 20,000 outstanding ballots of all kinds. The Secretary of State’s office said it did not know.[3]
- Why Dhillon left. Her letter says she planned to leave after the midterms. CBS’s sources say the President demanded her firing.[5]
- Who left the Ohio flyers. The flyers were attributed to the Trinity White Knights. We found no report of charges for the September 2026 flyers.[7]
- Newer flyer reports. A flyer drop in Cincinnati’s Mount Washington neighborhood was reported this week. Every account we found traces back to a single TV station report, with no police statement, so we have not included it until it can be confirmed independently.
How to Verify This Yourself
- Read the NAACP’s two Mississippi statements and its Dhillon statement in full on naacp.org.[1][2][6]
- Check your county’s Circuit Clerk and Election Commission for the latest affidavit totals. The NAACP has asked every county to release them publicly.[2]
- Read WOSU’s original report on the Ohio flyers, which includes the full text of the statements quoted above.[7]
What You Can Do Right Now
- Mississippi voters who cast an affidavit ballot: bring your ID to your Circuit Clerk’s office by the end of the business day on Tuesday, November 10, 2026.[2]
- Watch the count: county election commissions must let members of the public observe counting and canvassing.[2]
- Found a Klan flyer in central Ohio? The NAACP Columbus branch asks people to photograph it and email the images to info@naacp614.org.[7]
- Report a civil rights violation to the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division through its online portal.[9]
Download the printable checklist (PDF): the Mississippi cure deadline, flyer reporting and the DOJ complaint portal on one page.
Kemetic Minds Analysis
These three stories are about the same thing from three sides. A flyer tries to scare people. A ballot challenge tries to keep their votes from counting. A weakened Civil Rights Division means fewer federal lawyers stepping in when either happens. In Mississippi this week, the protection is coming from the NAACP’s own lawyers and observers, and from voters who show up at the Circuit Clerk’s office before Tuesday’s deadline.
References
- NAACP. (2026, November 5). NAACP Deploys Election Protection Resources and Staff to Mississippi in Midst of Tight Senate Race. naacp.org — primary source (press statement). ↩
- NAACP. (2026, November 6). NAACP Urges Mississippi Election Commissioners to Follow Every Legal Procedure. naacp.org — primary source (press statement). ↩
- NPR. (2026, November 6). No one knows how many ballots are outstanding in Mississippi’s Senate race. npr.org — secondary source. ↩
- Scripps News. (2026, November 6). As Mississippi’s vote count drags on, voters say they were marked inactive in error. youtube.com — secondary source (news video). ↩
- CBS News. (2026, November 5). Harmeet Dhillon, controversial head of Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, resigns. cbsnews.com — secondary source. ↩
- NAACP. (2026, November 5). NAACP Response to Harmeet Dhillon’s Plans to Step Down from Assistant Attorney General Role at Department of Justice. naacp.org — primary source (press statement). ↩
- Geniusz, K. (2026, September 29). Ku Klux Klan flyers found near schools in Clintonville and Worthington. WOSU Public Media. wosu.org — secondary source. ↩
- NAACP. Supporting the Passage of Federal Anti-Black American Hate Crime Bill Supporting Protections for Black Americans (resolution). naacp.org — primary source (organizational resolution citing FBI data). ↩
- U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division. Contact the Civil Rights Division. civilrights.justice.gov/report — primary source (official complaint portal). ↩
Related Reading
- Why it’s still too early to call the US Senate race in Mississippi
- Civil Rights Dispatch: Senatobia Arson Charge, DOJ Poll Monitor Limits and a Supreme Court Case
- 48 Hours of Racial Justice News: Redistricting, Campus Racism and a DOJ Fight Over Admissions
Methodology: every fact above comes from the numbered sources, and quotes are copied word for word from the pages cited. Press statements are labelled primary sources. Images are public domain (Library of Congress and Wikimedia Commons), and the video is the publisher’s own upload. This piece was researched and written in an editor-supervised session, not by an automated pipeline.
Kemetic Minds Editorial Desk
Verified NewsroomPrimary-sourced investigative intelligence on civil rights, voting rights, federal policy, and consumer protection. Sourced from primary legal filings, government statistics, and direct field reporting.