‘Casualties of War’: Mississippi Voter Purge Bills, ‘Poll Tax’ Dead For 2021
The Mississippi Legislature’s efforts to introduce new purges of registered voters have run out of time in 2021, a casualty of a tighter session than
The Mississippi Legislature’s efforts to introduce new purges of registered voters have run out of time in 2021, a casualty of a tighter session than
As Mississippi’s 2021 legislative session unfolds, two currents are competing to respond to 2020’s tumultuous election. One seeks to expand voting access, dismantling barriers for voter registration, the casting of absentee ballots and the return of the franchise to previously incarcerated residents. The other current is far more punitive and is more popular with the state’s supermajority Republican Party that controls the Governor’s Mansion and both chambers at the Capitol.
Abortion-rights advocates are warning that a new Mississippi abortion bill could make all abortions a felony offense for “any person” who “willfully and knowingly … causes” an abortion “or attempts to procure or produce an abortion or miscarriage.”
Neither private nor public Mississippi entities such as could require employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine under a new bill.
Almost 500 unfilled slots for COVID-19 vaccine appointments remained available for today by Sunday evening along with 400 unfilled openings for Tuesday.
A Mississippi educator has died of COVID-19 in DeSoto County, Miss., where the local sheriff is refusing to enforce mask mandates even amid widespread infection. For months, other top local officials have spread misinformation about the virus and downplayed the pandemic’s severity.
The DeSoto County Sheriff’s Department says it will not enforce Gov. Tate Reeves’ mask mandate or social-distancing orders even as COVID-19 ravages the county. Between the north Mississippi county’s three hospitals, only 52 hospital beds and one ICU bed remain available.
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