Mississippi
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America is the greatest country in the world because of her citizens' unwavering commitment to freedom and honest elections.
For our democracy to work, our citizens must have equal opportunities to vote, and the public needs to trust that our elections are fair. But politicians have worked to make it increasingly hard for Americans who oppose them to vote, and trust in our democracy is dropping—especially in Mississippi.
Mississippi is one of the hardest places to vote in the country, where the only voting option available to the majority of residents is in-person voting on Election Day.
While neighboring states like Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Texas, Florida, and Georgia made early voting available to every citizen even before the pandemic, Mississippi is one of only six states where early voting is not an option at all. Such severely limited voting options undermine election integrity and skew election outcomes.
We need to do better in Mississippi and make sure every American citizen who wants to vote can cast their ballot.
Did You Know?
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Mississippi is one of the six hardest states for working Americans to vote in. The only way to vote is in-person by 7PM on election day. If you work a double-shift or have a long commute, you need to take off work to vote.
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Even though Mississippi has some of the longest voting lines in the country, Governor Tate Reeves just signed a bill making it illegal for election boards to take donations from nonprofits to help secure election sites or hire more election workers to speed and secure the voting process.
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An elderly shut-in or disabled voter must get two different documents notarized in order to be able to submit their ballot by mail and have it counted. This is incredibly difficult, time consuming, and expensive, especially for rural voters who can not drive themselves.
How Mississippi Fails at Election Integrity
In a democracy, every citizen has the freedom and responsibility to vote their values and help choose the laws and leaders that govern society. However, Mississippi’s leaders are intentionally restricting the freedom to vote in order to serve their own political interests, consequently undermining the democratic process our fair elections depend on.
How Mississippi is Undermining the Freedom to Vote
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Restricting Absentee Ballots to Decrease Voter Turnout
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In order to vote absentee in Mississippi, voters must prove they cannot be physically present, fill out an application to receive an absentee ballot, have the application notarized, receive their ballot, have their ballot notarized, and then make sure the ballot is received by election officials before state mandated cut offs. The hassle discourages potential voters from trying, and the many steps allow a number of absentee ballots cast by American citizens to be thrown out on bureaucratic technicalities.
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Bad Policy Causing Impossibly Long Lines
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The voting lines in Mississippi are some of the longest in the nation, regularly wrapping around polling places hundreds of feet. In 2020, voting lines on election day were up to 3 hours long, creating an impossible barrier for workers who had to return to work or parents who had to pick up their children.
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No Plans to Protect the Freedom to Vote
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Mississippi’s elected officials are unconcerned about how hard it is for citizens to vote. In 2020, they publicly boasted that they will oppose any changes to voting law that would shorten lines or allow citizens with photo ID to vote early or by mail—policies which other states have adopted to make voting more accessible for the elderly and disabled.
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Governor Tate Reeves tweeted after the 2020 election, “I will do everything in my power to make sure universal mail-in voting and no-excuse early voting are not allowed in Mississippi - not while I’m governor.”
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Reeves recently signed House Bill 1365 into law, which prohibits polling places from accepting “any donation in the form of money, grants, property or personal services” from any individual or nonprofit for election-related expenses, including helping secure polling places, informing the public about election deadlines, and hiring new poll workers to lessen long lines.
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Protecting Election Integrity
Election Integrity depends on citizens being able to exercise their right to vote in secure elections. But Mississippi laws are doing everything in their power to keep the voting process difficult and shrouded in bureaucracy.
We can not let this continue. We’ve got to stand up for our elections and our freedom to vote. The future of our nation depends on it.
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