MFP Contributor
A large majority of Mississippians have voted to adopt a new state flag, affirming the Legislature’s decision to retire the Confederate-themed 1894 version. While some votes are outstanding, there is no sign they would change the result.
Chaotic scenes unfolded in and around a crowded majority-Black Madison County voting precinct this morning as hundreds of voters’ vehicles filled up two parking lots and began spilling into a third down the road. Voters waited two hours to cast a ballot as the line stretched from The Mark Apartments precinct in southeast Ridgeland, a historic white-flight suburb outside Jackson, and wrapped around a shopping center down the road.
On Election Day, Mississippi voters have the opportunity to vote to rid the state constitution of a Jim Crow-era remnant: A state-level elections law similar to the national electoral college system that requires candidates for eight statewide offices, including governor, to win not only the popular vote, but a majority of House districts.
Voters in two majority Black Mississippi counties have cast almost four times as many absentee ballots as they did four years ago, new data from the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office show.
Since May, local officials in Mississippi have changed polling-place locations for at least 55 precincts—more than triple the 17 precinct changes that Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson announced last week, affecting about 65,000 Mississippi voters.
2,550 mostly Black and Hispanic voters in southeast Ridgeland, a historic white-flight suburb outside just north of Jackson, were quietly rezoned out of their racially mixed precinct this summer. They were placed, instead, into an already majority non-white one.
Since the spring, local Mississippi officials have moved 17 polling places that serve about 18,000 voters, Secretary of State Michael Watson announced Tuesday. The changes took place after the March 10 party primaries.
Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban could soon make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, with the court set to decide whether to hear it on Friday. The court announced plans to consider hearing the case yesterday evening—just as the U.S. Senate voted on a party-line basis to confirm President Donald Trump’s third pick to the high court, Amy Coney Barrett.
With five days to go until the Oct. 31 deadline, Mississippians in Washington, Hinds, Harrison and Sunflower counties have already returned twice as many absentee ballots for this year’s general election compared to 2016. Washington, Hinds and Sunflower each have non-white populations of at least 70%, and states nationwide have reported large jumps in African American early voting turnout. In Harrison County, which includes Biloxi and Gulfport, Black voters make up 26% of the population.
Mississippi Journalism and Education Group is a a 501(c)(3) nonprofit media organization (EIN 85-1403937) for the state, devoted to going beyond partisanship and publishing solutions journalism for the Magnolia State and all of its people.
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The Mississippi Free Press is a project of the Mississippi Journalism and Education Group, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit journalism organization (EIN 85-1403937).
