JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi is updating a voter registration deadline to meet a requirement of a 1993 federal law.
The change gives people a bit more time to register so they can vote in runoff elections for federal offices.
Mississippi has required people to be registered at least 30 days before the first round of voting in an election. Runoffs happen three weeks later.
The Mississippi NAACP and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law sent a letter to the state’s top election official in June. It said that under the National Voter Registration Act, people should be able to vote in runoffs if they’re registered at least 30 days before the runoff, not 30 days before the initial election.
The secretary of state’s office has agreed, in a letter released Friday.
