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.
With long voting lines in the state and across the country expected on Nov. 3, voters could be subjected to more electioneering outside the polls than in years past. Electioneering is defined as “the activity of trying to persuade people to vote for a particular political party.”
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.
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.
Mississippi expatriate Kenny Wayne Mason, a popular long-time maître d’ at the Waverly Inn in New York City, moved home to his family in Greenville after the COVID-19 pandemic hit. On Oct. 21, Mason was found shot to death.
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.
Mississippians who vote absentee will have more protections to ensure election officials count their ballots this year. Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson made changes to the process after resident plaintiffs and civil rights groups filed a lawsuit, which the plaintiffs dismissed today in light of a new “curing” process.
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