Voters will elect new state lawmakers in special elections for two Mississippi House seats and two Mississippi Senate seats on Tuesday, Oct. 13.
Mississippians will not be required to wear masks as they enter polling places on Election Day—but poll workers may ask masked voters to momentarily remove their masks to verify their identities. The mask rules are part of a set of COVID-19 “Polling Place Safety” rules that Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson’s office formalized this week.
When Gov. Tate Reeves announced last week that he would not renew an executive order requiring Mississippians to wear masks in public places last week, he said he would “trust the majority of the people of Mississippi to do the right thing.” Most Mississippians would continue wearing masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19, he said.
Mississippi voters could have the opportunity to begin voting in person on absentee ballots with no excuse necessary if the Legislature adopts a bill a bipartisan group of three Mississippi House representatives proposed today. Without changes, most Mississippi voters will have to vote in person on Election Day with few exceptions—and without a statewide mask mandate in place as of the governor’s decision yesterday.
The first 2020 presidential debate took one of its ugliest turns when President Donald Trump refused to say he condemned white supremacists after moderator Chris Wallace asked him to do so. Gov. Tate Reeves declined to criticize the president.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves allowed the statewide mask mandate to expire today, saying at a Hinds County press conference that “we should not use the heavy hand of government more than it is justified.”
Mississippi voters who have pre-existing health conditions “that cause COVID-19 to present a greater risk of severe illness or death” still must vote in person in the Nov. 3 election unless that illness qualifies as a “physical disability,” the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled today.
Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson (pictured), along with Attorney General Lynn Fitch, are targets of a new legal demand for an injunction to stop them from blocking absentee ballots for Mississippi voters with underlying conditions that make serious COVID-19 infection or death more likely.
Mississippians with medical conditions that cause higher risk for COVID-19 infection and death are suing the State of Mississippi over stringent rules that block them from voting absentee.
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