Early voting is something that has been debated in Mississippi for years.
In the 2016 legislative session, the Mississippi House passed a bill authorizing online registration by a margin of 118 – 2 and then passed an early voting bill 120 – 0. However, the Senate killed the early voting bill and amended and weakened the online registration legislation.
Last week a committee of the House passed three measures this week to make it easier for people to participate in elections. The least controversial measure of which was one that would allow early in-person voting, no matter the reason, starting 14 days before the election.
However, many believe that once again this bill would be killed by the Senate if it gets through the House again.
Under current state law, you cannot vote in advance except by absentee ballot and only for three possible reasons: those with disabilities, those who are senior citizens or those who will be out of town on Election Day.
Not only is the current system too restrictive, but it also is prone to fraud, as absentee ballots are the easiest and most-used avenue to stealing votes.
Mississippi should not be making things harder for people to vote but easier. The abysmal numbers from the run-off judicial elections last November are a sign that sometimes people struggle to take time out of their days to vote, so we should make it as easy as possible for them to do that in order to achieve the best results.
As someone who used to always use early voting in Arkansas and Texas it baffled me when I moved to Mississippi to learn that early voting was not a thing here. This is something logical and should be passed immediately and implemented by our legislatures.
Joseph Brown is the editor and publisher of The Star-Herald. He can be reached at jbrown@starherald.net.
