Voters who cast ballots for one party in the Aug. 6 primary may have improperly voted for a different party in Tuesday's runoff due to machine malfunctions, according to the Hinds County GOP.

Pete Perry, Hinds County Republican Party chairman, said he was first alerted to an issue at Casey Elementary precinct around 9:15 a.m. Tuesday. The school is one of the 108 precincts in Hinds County. According to a poll worker, people who voted Democratic in the primary were allowed to vote in the Republican runoff, Perry said.

A spokesperson for the Hinds County Election Commission could not be reached for comment.

ELECTION RESULTS: Check here Tuesday night for live Mississippi runoff results

According to Perry, the "party lock" on machines provided by Election Systems and Software is not functioning. This means voters who cast a ballot for a Democratic candidate in the primary are being erroneously allowed to vote in the Republican runoff.

Election problems:Video shows machine automatically changing vote from Waller to Reeves

Mississippi has no party registration and is an open primary state. But if voters vote for one party in the primary, they are only allowed to vote for that same party in a runoff. For example, if a voter voted on the Democratic ticket in August, they would not be allowed to vote in Tuesday's Republican runoff for governor.

However, Perry said, "we know that's already happened."

When Perry found out about the issue at Casey, he and a technician with Election Systems and Software went to the Hinds County Courthouse.

Pulling voter rolls, Perry attempted to mock vote on the Republican ticket as five different people who voted Democratic. All five names would have been allowed to vote, he said.

More:Can Democrats vote in the Republican runoff for Mississippi governor?

As for the people who already voted cross ticket at Casey, Perry said, "You can't do anything about it now."

"It's a hell of a big mess and you can quote me on that," he said. "We ought not have the problem. We ought to be sitting right there and enjoying coffee and enjoying the day because everything is running smooth."

A spokesperson for ES&S could not be reached for comment.

According to Perry, using data from the primary, the Hinds County Election Commission downloads the poll books from both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. The commission didn't finish inputting the books until Thursday night, he said, and as a result, ES&S could not upload the books into the system until Friday.

When ES&S uploads the books, the machine is supposed to recognize which voters voted in which primary, creating a "party lock" so people aren't allowed to cross vote, Perry said.

But, for some reason, that didn't happen.

"They cannot tell me why it's not working," he said. "We've got this nice, great technology and it's supposed to be programmed to not let this happen but the program is not in for some reason or another."

About half of the precincts in Hinds County use electronic poll books. Perry said he's been calling all the precincts and instructing them to use the paper poll book instead but it's a process that takes time.

"What's supposed to be in the system is not there," he said. "We're having to call all these precincts and explain to them that they've got to do double the work."

Parker Briden, spokesperson for the Reeves campaign, on Tuesday said "obviously that's concerning."

"I have confidence in the chairman there but that's something to keep eye on," Briden said.

A spokesperson for the Waller campaign delcined to comment on the matter.

Anna Moak, spokesperson for the secretary of state's office, said via email, "It appears that Hinds County Republicans have an issue with their electronic poll books in some precincts.

"The electronic poll books are not consistently displaying voter history so the poll workers are manually checking the back-up paper poll books to ensure cross-over voting is not taking place."

Perry said, to his knowledge, ES&S has contracts with 75 counties in Mississippi.

When asked how many voters had been allowed to cross vote, Perry said, "I have no idea, I could not guess. I can tell you in four days ... but right now, it could be one, one hundred, five hundred. Pick a number and it could be it."

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated Mississippi is a closed primary state. It has been updated to reflect that Mississippi is an open primary state.

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​​​​​​​Contact Sarah Fowler at 601-961-7303 or sfowler@gannett.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.