Mississippians will not have access to a system to place statewide issues on a ballot, at least for another year. But they might soon be able to more easily see who funds politicians’ campaigns. 

Thursday was the deadline for the Mississippi Legislature to pass some bills in the full Senate or House. Those that were not approved by one chamber or another died, although lawmakers can sometimes revive measures by amending bills that lived. 

Elections and voting issues are some of the hottest debated policy items at the Capitol. For the fifth straight year, lawmakers failed to agree on a way to restore Mississippi’s ballot initiative. Each year in recent years, lawmakers push to reform Mississippi’s election laws and notorious lax campaign finance laws. But these efforts over the last several years, including this current session, have mostly sputtered.  

Here is a list of where election-related bills stand during so far in the 2026 legislative session: 

Strengthening campaign finance laws

Lawmakers advanced Senate Bill 2558 from the Senate Elections Committee, but it did not have enough support to pass the full chamber. 

Senate Elections Chairman Jeremy England, a Republican from Vancleave, told Mississippi Today on Thursday that many senators thought the legislation was changing too many parts of campaign finance laws too quickly. 

The measure would have clarified that the secretary of state’s office has the power to investigate campaign finance violations and the attorney general would prosecute them. 

It would also have required candidates to have a bank account for their campaign money and clarified that out-of-state corporations are subject to a $1,000 a year donation limit. 

The House Elections Committee previously killed a similar House bill earlier in the session. 

The Robert Clarke Jr. Voting Rights Act

Several Democratic lawmakers pushed legislative leaders to pass a state version of the federal Voting Rights Act, but the measures died in both the House and Senate. 

Supporters said the proposal was designed to safeguard minority voting rights, as the U.S. Supreme Court has indicated it will reconsider provisions of the federal Voting Rights Act and has already overturned some.

The state legislation would have prohibited dilution of minority voters, established a Mississippi Voting Rights Commission, and required some jurisdictions to obtain preclearance approval from the commission for changes to voting regulations.  

The bills were named in honor of Robert G. Clark Jr., who in 1967 became the first Black Mississippian elected to the state Legislature in the modern era.

Proof of citizenship to vote 

The House and Senate have passed bills that could make it more onerous for people without a driver’s license to register to vote, a proposal legislative leaders have said would allow local elections officials to verify a person’s citizenship.

The Safeguard Honest Integrity in Elections for Lasting Democracy, or SHIELD, Act would require county registrars to conduct extra checks on people who try to register to vote without a driver’s license number. 

Under the bill, if someone tried to register and could not produce a license number, the clerk would have to verify whether the person appears in a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services database called SAVE. Government agencies use the federal database to verify an applicant’s immigration status or citizenship.

The bill would also require election officials to notify applicants flagged as non-citizens and require them to prove citizenship.

Mandatory online filing for campaign finance 

Although substantive campaign finance reform did not gain traction, the Senate passed a bill that would require every candidate in the state to file a campaign finance report online, as is required in most states. 

Secretary of State Michael Watson’s office plans to unveil a new system on its website that will allow people to view campaign finance reports more easily, similar to the Federal Election Commission’s website for congressional and presidential candidates and systems in most other states. 

Senate Elections Chairman Jeremy England said the aim of the bill is to pair with Watson’s new online system. 

Currently, candidates can submit handwritten campaign finance reports, some of which are illegible and hard to decipher and the system is not easily searchable or sortable.