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Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

Mike Espy, former congressman and former U.S. agriculture secretary.

Dozens of potential Mike Espy donors listened as Stacey Abrams, the Mississippi native and Georgia activist who was earlier tabbed as a possible running mate to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, spoke on a virtual fundraising call on May 29.

“We know that if we do the work now, that if we invest now in Mike Espy and his vision for Mississippi, we don’t just change Mississippi, we change the South. And when we change the South, we change America,” Abrams said of Mississippi’s Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.

The Abrams fundraiser was one of more than 40 virtual events the Espy campaign has hosted in 2020, as campaigns across the nation scramble during the pandemic to engage voters and generate enthusiasm. 

Working to do just that and share his vision with Mississippians, Espy has built as large a campaign organization as any statewide Democrat in the state’s history. As of this week, the campaign has hired 15 full-time staffers — at least twice as many staffers as his opponent, incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.

READ MORE: Up in the polls during pandemic, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s campaign lays low.

The campaign is managed by Joe O’Hern, a nationally sought-after Democratic political operative with experience from presidential politics down to local politics. O’Hern has hired a mix of strategists with both national and home-grown experience, and the campaign staff make-up is 60% people of color and 66% women.

Separate from the campaign, the state Democratic Party’s coordinated campaign — a team of mostly field staffers that uses funds from the national party to support the state’s candidates — has built an even larger staff that will directly benefit Espy’s candidacy. The coordinated campaign has hired more than a dozen full-time staffers and has plans to have 30 total staffers in place before Election Day. They will focus completely on direct voter outreach and turning out Democratic voters.

That team is led by Jared Turner, an experienced political strategist who has managed or worked dozens of high-profile Mississippi races.

“Electing history-making candidates up and down the ticket requires a history-making effort,” Turner said. “The Campaign for Mississippi is building an organization of Mississippians to turn out the vote in all 82 counties across our state.”

The Espy campaign’s approach during the pandemic has been centered on virtual events and conference calls, such as the one with Abrams. His campaign has hosted events including the “Mississippi Moving Forward Tour” kick-off, which had 200 participants on a Zoom call for one-and-a-half hours. It hosted a roundtable call with young Black leaders, a roundtable with education experts regarding school reopenings and the state of education in Mississippi, and a healthcare telephone town hall that drew 3,000 participants.

And when he can, Espy has shown up in person. With his wife and kids, Espy attended the June Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Jackson. He’s helped healthcare workers deliver free masks and other PPE to people in long car lines in Greenwood and Meridian.

The Espy camp’s fundraising has also turned heads in Mississippi and nationally. To date, Espy has raised $1.9 million. At this point in his race two years ago, he’d raised less than $700,000. He’s outraised Hyde-Smith in all but one campaign finance reporting period of 2020 as the incumbent struggles to raise cash.

And campaign aides say donations from Mississippians are up — a possible indication of enthusiasm for his candidacy in the state. Espy has received nearly 10 times as many contributions from Mississippi donors this cycle as he received to this point in 2018. Already this cycle, Espy has received contributions from 7,600 Mississippi donors, the campaign said. In the entire 2018 cycle, he earned the support of about 5,000 Mississippi donors.

But even with the staffing and fundraising advantages over Hyde-Smith, Espy has his work cut out for him. He’s running in one of the reddest states in the nation, where any Democrat — even one with moderate platforms — is strategically paired with national progressives with high disapproval ratings among conservatives and independents.

A Democrat has never been elected to the U.S. Senate from Mississippi in modern times, and Espy himself lost to the same opponent by seven points just two years ago.

“Espy is doing everything he can do, but there’s something to be said that there are a lot of voters who vote against the opposition more than they’re voting for someone,” said Marvin King, associate professor of political science at the University of Mississippi. “For Cindy Hyde-Smith, as long as you’re polling ahead, despite not raising as much recently, and as long as Trump is polling ahead, she can just say, ‘I’m a Trump Republican.’ That very well might be all she needs to do.”

Espy, if elected, would be just the 11th Black U.S. senator in the nation’s history. Two of them — Hiram Revels and Blanche K. Bruce — were Mississippians, but they were elected by the majority-Black Legislature during Reconstruction, not by popular vote.

While a victory in ruby red Mississippi remains elusive for statewide Democrats, the optics of the state’s 2020 Senate election — as Black Lives Matter protests demand the attention of campaigns across the nation and influence policy — seem increasingly appealing for Espy in this national moment: a Black candidate who has already broken racial barriers in his political career challenging a white incumbent who has a questionable history on race.

READ MORE: Espy places race at center of Senate campaign. How will Hyde-Smith respond?

“Given the current racial climate in America, the candidates enter the contest where race is already a salient issue and therefore neither of the candidates will be forced to incorporate such language while on the stump,” said D’Andra Orey, professor of political science at Jackson State University. “I do expect, however, each of the candidates to use such language when speaking to their base. For example, it will be impossible for Espy to speak to his base without mentioning race-specific issues such as the death of George Floyd or Breonna Taylor. Hyde-Smith, on the other hand, will be expected to mention the protests as a need for law and order.”

Despite the odds, Espy campaign leaders hope the money they’ve raised, combined with the nation’s hyper-focus on race in politics, can spark a flame in Mississippi. And several campaign staffers believe the infrastructure they’re building can benefit Democratic candidates in years to come.

“Mike Espy and the Espy for Senate campaign are dedicated to building an organization that can serve as the model for other statewide and local campaigns,” said Jacquie Amos, a former longtime staffer of the Mississippi Democratic Party and the Espy campaign’s outreach director. “This campaign is about an investment in the future for Mississippians.”

The post Mike Espy has built a robust and historic Senate campaign. Can he win? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

Commissioners selected this design called the “Great River Flag” as one of two finalists to become the new state flag.

After seeing five finalist designs flying over the Old Capitol on Tuesday, the flag commission on Sept. 2 will pick one of two designs to put before voters as a new Mississippi state flag.

“I think I’m going to love whichever one they pick,” said Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who was among a small crowd outside the Old Capitol watching the five finalists hoisted up a flag pole one after the other.

Voters in November will get a chance to accept or reject either a flag with a red-white-and-blue striped shield — inspired by the state’s territorial seal of 1798 — or a magnolia blossom, the official state bloom, on a blue background with red and gold stripes. Both, as required by a new law, have the words “In God We Trust” on them.

Both also include a large, main star with a diamond in it, representing the state’s Native Americans, and 20 smaller stars, representing Mississippi becoming the 20th state in 1817.

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

The second finalist chosen on Tuesday to become the new state flag.

The commission has winnowed the choices to these two out of thousands of submitted designs.

The Mississippi Legislature, after decades of debate, voted in June to remove the 1894 state flag with its divisive Confederate battle emblem. The legislation it passed created the commission to choose a new flag to put before voters on the Nov. 3 ballot. Voters can either approve or reject the new design. If they reject it, the commission will go back to the drawing board, and present another design to voters next year.

Hosemann on Tuesday declined to say if he had a favorite among the finalists or to handicap whether voters would ratify the final picked by the nine-member commission appointed by Hosemann, the governor and House speaker.

“It’s like (other elections), the primaries will soon be over and voters will have a design to look at and discuss the underlying meaning and symbolism,” Hosemann said. “It will be with a presidential election, so we’ll have good turnout. It will be the people’s flag, and if they don’t vote for this one, then we’ll do another.”

Felder Rushing, a noted horticulturist, radio show host and writer, was among the crowd watching the five finalists fly Tuesday.

“They look better in person than on paper,” Rushing said, a sentiment held by many attendees and commissioners on Tuesday. Rushing added that he is pulling for a design with a magnolia bloom.

The commission will take public input and online polling on the two remaining designs before picking a final one on Sept. 2.

The commission has had an attorney working with finalists to make sure there are no copyright or intellectual property issues — one of the finalists weeded out Tuesday included clip-art that would have posed a problem. And the commission instructed an attorney general’s office lawyer to do a background and social media check on designers. The lawyer said he had already done a preliminary check and none had criminal backgrounds.

“We don’t want to end up being embarrassed by someone whose background is not appropriate to what we are doing,” said commission Chairman Reuben Anderson.

One group, angered that the Legislature removed the old flag without letting voters decide, has started a petition drive to resurrect by referendum the 126-year-old state flag that featured the Confederate battle emblem prominently in its design.

The post Commission selects final two designs to become new state flag appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith greets voters at a campaign event in 2018.

Incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, about two months from the November election, is keeping a low profile, riding an apparent lead in the polls and banking on proxy support from President Donald Trump’s popularity in Mississippi.

She’s so far done little public campaigning in person or virtually amid the pandemic.

“I definitely think the school of thought with (presidential candidate Joe Biden) is the same thing going on in Cindy Hyde-Smith world: Let’s lay low. We have a lead,” said Henry Barbour, longtime Republican strategist and Mississippi Republican national committeeman. “That’s a tried-and-true strategy. If you’re winning, keep your head down. That’s the same reason that (former U.S. Sen.) Thad Cochran didn’t debate Chris McDaniel in 2014. Why do it? Don’t give your opponent the platform.”

Hyde-Smith campaign spokesman Justin Brasell said Hyde-Smith “has not slowed down one bit,” is making public appearances and doing “telephone town halls and lots of small group meetings.” But many of these events are for her job as senator, which Brasell said is her main focus rather than campaigning. These tele-town halls have apparently not been widely publicized or archived for public viewing.

Hyde-Smith, who declined an interview for this article, planned to be in Gulfport for the opening of the Mississippi Aquarium this week, Brasell said, but “we really don’t have any public campaign events scheduled right now.”

READ MORE: Mike Espy has built a robust and historic Senate campaign. Can he win?

In lieu of public campaign events, Hyde-Smith has been posting “100 Accomplishments in 100 Days” to social media — listing her accomplishments as senator, such as supporting “record ICE detention capacity with no limitations on interior enforcement operations,” and helping provide hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to charter schools nationwide.

Brasell said Hyde-Smith’s campaign is up and running with offices in Jackson, Tupelo and Gulfport, has hired seven staffers and has volunteers in every county in the state. He noted campaign volunteers had a big presence at a recent boating Trump rally on the Coast, with Hyde-Smith signs on many boats and homes along with waterway for the boat parade.

Campaigning during a pandemic is uncharted territory, Brasell said, and normal retail politicking isn’t possible.

“We are anxious to get out and hold events and do normal campaign things, but she’s being super careful and following guidelines,” Brasell said. He said the campaign has received an invite to participate in a debate, but hasn’t decided if it is doable because of her Senate work schedule.

Hyde-Smith, 61, a cattle farmer from Brookhaven, was serving as state commissioner of agriculture when she was appointed by Gov. Phil Bryant in 2018 to temporarily fill the Senate seat vacated by longtime Sen. Thad Cochran. She beat Democrat Mike Espy in a 2018 special election runoff to fill out the term, becoming the first woman elected to Congress from Mississippi. Espy is challenging Hyde-Smith again this year.

READ MORE: Two months from Senate race, Hyde-Smith and Espy set wildly different strategies. 

Trump and some in the Mississippi Republican hierarchy were reportedly lukewarm on Hyde-Smith when Bryant appointed her, largely because she had served for years in the state Legislature as a Democrat. But Trump endorsed her and stumped for her in Mississippi in 2018. In turn, she has been one of his staunchest allies in the Senate, unwaveringly supporting most of his policies and defending him during impeachment hearings.

With Mississippi considered by national pundits firmly in the Trump column for November, it’s unlikely Hyde-Smith would receive the same personal help from him this cycle, but she will likely still be a beneficiary of his popularity here.

“I think this will be a big turnout because it’s a referendum on Donald Trump and how the country is doing,” Barbour said. “I think that is going to help Cindy Hyde-Smith. George Floyd, the protests, that will help Mike Espy, but I think Democratic voters in Mississippi know that Donald Trump will win Mississippi, so it’s a little hard to get low-propensity voters to show up on the Democratic side.”

In her 2018 campaign, Hyde-Smith drew national attention from some gaffes on the stump, most notably from comments she made about attending a public hanging and about voter suppression.

Nathan Shrader, political science professor at Millsaps College, said the Hyde-Smith campaign is likely to benefit from the limits on campaigning forced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I sincerely believe this plays into her campaign strategy: attempt to limit face-to-face interaction or ways she could get in trouble like with the public hanging comments or posing wearing a Confederate cap,” Shrader said. “This limits the opportunity for things where their campaign might be forced to go into defense, making apologies or walking back things.”

Barbour said he believes Hyde-Smith will benefit from a large Republican presidential turnout and from “a clear choice” voters have in the Senate race.

“If you like the way Nancy Pelosi leads in Congress, then you want to vote for Mike Espy,” Barbour said. “If you want somebody who will vote with Donald Trump, then you want Cindy Hyde-Smith. I think for most people it’s just about that simple, and that’s clearly a Cindy Hyde-Smith advantage.”

“They are both good people, but they have differences on issues that are distinct,” Barbour continued. “Mike Espy unfortunately has taken on the positions of the liberal Democratic Party.”

The post Up in the polls during pandemic, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s campaign lays low appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today

House Speaker Philip Gunn prepares to remove his mask as he leaves a press conference on Thursday, May 7, 2020.

After being at an impasse for months over the governor’s spending authority, the Legislature on Monday passed a compromise budget for the Department of Marine Resources, just days before the agency would run out of money and with two storms rolling through the Gulf.

“We agreed the issue needed to be resolved now,” said Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn, who has been at odds with Republican Gov. Tate Reeves over appropriation power, and recently filed a lawsuit against the governor over his line item vetoes of legislative spending.

Gunn and other legislative leaders say the state Constitution gives appropriation power to the Legislature, not the executive branch, and that previous governors’ spending of Gulf restoration money that flows through DMR’s budget has violated that separation for years.

“We’ve agreed to continue to work on this issue,” Gunn said Monday. “This deal is a one-time agreement for this year, it does not concede this issue or hinder anything moving forward.”

DMR, which provides marine regulatory and law enforcement services on the Gulf Coast, has been without a state budget since July 1 and was set to run out of money to operate and meet payroll at the end of August. The issue became even more urgent this week with a tropical storm and a hurricane in the Gulf and DMR providing emergency services.

At issue is control of millions of dollars a year of Gulf restoration funds Mississippi receives for oil and gas leases. The Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, or GOMESA, is a federal revenue sharing program for oil and gas producing states in the Gulf. For this year, the state has $47 million in GOMESA funds.

Reeves has called the legislative push to control GOMESA spending a “power grab” after the executive branch has run the program since its inception in 2006. In recent years, the amount of money coming in for Mississippi’s share of GOMESA has ballooned from hundreds of thousands a year to tens of millions.

The Legislature had been divided on the issue, with much of the Senate supporting Reeves authority over GOMESA funds. The compromise provides $27 million for projects already approved by the executive branch, and $10 million for any projects it approves this budget year. The remaining $10 million will be on hold until next year, and the Legislature will continue to haggle over executive authority over the program.

“I’m very thankful we reached an agreement to get DMR back up and rolling,” said Senate Ports and Marine Resources Chairman Philip Moran, R-Kiln, who had largely supported Reeves position. “… Next year when we come back, we will continue to work on this. We’re not very far apart at the end of the day.”

Senate leaders had previously offered a compromise that included creation of a legislative advisory committee to make recommendations on GOMESA projects and spending. House leaders had pitched having the governor submit a list of GOMESA projects for legislative approval each year, allowing for “checks and balances.”

Since its inception in 2006, then-Mississippi Govs. Haley Barbour and Phil Bryant controlled approval of GOMESA projects vetted by DMR as the revenue started out small but continued to grow.

In recent years, lawmakers and others have questioned whether projects chosen are helping coastal restoration and protection, or if they are just pet political projects.

Millions in GOMESA funds have been granted to build boardwalks near casinos, a planned aquarium in Gulfport — including a tram system threatened to be “de-obligated” for not meeting GOMESA requirements — and other projects critics have said don’t meet the intended purpose.

Reeves on Monday morning, at a press conference to discuss the threat to Mississippi from a tropical storm and a hurricane this week, said he had worked with legislative leaders over the past couple of weeks and was pleased a compromise had been reached.

The Legislature reconvened Monday to pass a DMR budget, and is expected to meet briefly on Tuesday before adjourning, likely until October.

The post Lawmakers pass DMR budget compromise during fight over governor’s spending authority appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Rogelio V. Solis, AP

Jackson Women’s Health Organization

Mississippi’s currently-blocked law that bans abortions after 15 weeks should not be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, attorneys said last week.

“The state has asked the Supreme Court to review the 5th Circuit decision striking down the 15 week ban and we are telling the Supreme Court that there’s absolutely no need to review that decision — the 5th Circuit decision was correct based on decades of precedent about pre-viabilty ban,” Hillary Schneller, lead attorney representing the Jackson Women’s Health Organization, told Mississippi Today about the new court filing. 

The law has been overturned by federal courts twice in two years. This was the first of recent abortion bans to be passed by a state, blocked by federal courts, and if taken up by the Supreme Court, would be the first to make it that far. Up to now, the Court has declined to take up any recent cases banning abortion at various points in pregnancy.

“It speaks to the state’s relentless attempts to ban or restrict abortion and just make it harder and harder and harder for people to access important reproductive health care,” Schneller said. “It’s both something new and more of the same. It’s not new that the state is trying to restrict abortion, but they’re continuing to get more and more aggressive about it.”

After years of Mississippi abortion regulations winding through lower courts, Attorney General Lynn Fitch in June petitioned the nation’s highest court to hear the 15-week case on appeal of a lower court’s 2019 ruling that blocked the unconstitutional law. The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision last year was the second court to block the 2018 law, after U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves initially blocked it shortly after it was passed by the Mississippi Legislature and permanently overturned it eight months later.

Despite the quick succession of courts ruling the law unconstitutional, Mississippi’s Legislature passed an even stricter law the following year, banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. It too was blocked by the same two respective federal courts. Instead of appealing the more recent law to the Supreme Court, Fitch recently announced that she would revert to the less strict, 15-week law for appeal.

“The petition asks the Court to clarify its jurisprudence on abortion to allow states like ours to enact laws that further their legitimate interest in protecting maternal health, safeguarding unborn, and promoting respect for innocent and vulnerable life,” she said in a statement. Her office did not respond to questions about the case.

In its first abortion case with the newly aligned conservative bench — watched by reproductive rights advocates and opponents as a barometer of cases to come, as 17 states passed laws limiting abortion access in 2019 alone — the Supreme Court in June upheld abortion rights by allowing a Louisiana clinic to remain open.

The new brief — filed last week by the Center for Reproductive Rights on behalf of the state’s sole abortion clinic, Jackson Women’s Health Organization — asks the court to deny the state’s request to hear the case based on precedent. The Supreme Court traditionally takes a case when there are conflicting interpretations across circuit courts, or after new questions or evidence have been raised. Neither is the case here, according to the new filing.

“Both the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the district court correctly held that this unconstitutional law cannot stand. The decision below properly applies this Court’s precedent and does not conflict with the decision of any other court,” reads the filing. “Nothing about this case warrants this Court’s intervention.”

The filing goes on to say that the state misinterprets its legal role in regulating abortion — something both parties have argued over before. Mississippi says its interest in “protecting unborn life, regulating the medical profession, and protecting maternal health” should override individual rights to choose abortion before viability. States do have a vested interest in regulating abortion, but they can’t outright ban the procedure, per precedent. Before a pregnancy is viable — usually around 23 to 24 weeks — the state can regulate, but not prohibit, abortion.

Mississippi has argued in court that its 15-week law is “not per se” a prohibition and that the viability framework needs to be revisited — despite consensus among medical professionals that limiting abortion access is more dangerous than the procedure itself: “Legislative restrictions fundamentally interfere with the patient–provider relationship and decrease access to abortion for all women, and particularly for low-income women and those living long distances from health care providers,” according to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

In the first decision to block the law, Judge Reeves outlined that the law is a prohibition, not just a regulation, and how that dooms the law: “States may not ban abortions prior to viability … 15 weeks (since last menstrual period) is prior to viability … the Act is unlawful.”

The 5th Circuit upheld the decision saying that “prohibitions on pre-viability abortions … are unconstitutional regardless of the State’s interests because,” quoting Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the 30-year-old case that affirmed Roe v. Wade, “‘a State may not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy before viability.’”

During oral arguments at the 5th Circuit last year, the three-judge panel did separately push state attorneys on their claims that the law was not a prohibition and clinic attorneys on whether or not it was time to revisit the viability question.

Ultimately, the Circuit Court found they were “duty bound” to affirm the District’s decision, though they criticized its language admonishing Mississippi’s motives.

In his decision permanently blocking the 15-week law, Reeves called attempts to push unconstitutional laws through “disingenuous.”

“No, the real reason we are here is simple. The State chose to pass a law it knew was unconstitutional to endorse a decades-long campaign, fueled by national interest groups, to ask the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade,” Reeves wrote. “The Mississippi Legislature’s professed interest in ‘women’s health’ is pure gaslighting. . . . Its leaders are proud to challenge Roe but choose not to lift a finger to address the tragedies lurking on the other side of the delivery room: our alarming infant and maternal mortality rates.”

Mississippi has among the nation’s highest worst maternal health outcomes and currently the highest rate of infant mortality. Conversely, complications from abortions are rare, especially in Mississippi where almost all happen in the first trimester and are delivered medically, by pill, rather than surgically. Though their likelihood of complication increases with duration of pregnancy,  Jackson Women’s Health Organization — the only clinic in the state — does not perform abortions after 16 weeks.

More than 90 percent of abortions in Mississippi in 2016 were performed before 14 weeks of gestation and 65 percent were before 9 weeks, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s most recent data. More than a quarter of abortions in the U.S. are medically delivered rather than surgically, while almost two-thirds of abortions in Mississippi are delivered this way.

“Mississippi already has a number of restrictions and over-regulations of abortion that make it hard for everyone, in particular folks who are already struggling to access essential health care. That becomes more difficult in times of crisis, like the public health crisis we’re in right now,” Schneller, clinic attorney, said. “So the fact that the state is continuing to fight this fight all the way up to the Supreme Court is not unexpected, but is disappointing that this is where their efforts continue to be focused.”

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Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

Sec. of State Michael Watson

Secretary of State Michael Watson, the state’s chief elections officer, says he is “a bit concerned” with the ability of the U.S. Postal Service to ensure absentee ballots are mailed out and returned in time to be counted for the November general election.

“But our office can only control what our office controls, and the USPS isn’t on our list,” said Watson, a first term Republican, in prepared responses to questions from Mississippi Today. “I recently spoke to a circuit clerk who just this week received a mail-in absentee ballot that was postmarked last October, so everyone should be concerned about mail-in ballots, especially the states that have and are moving to vote by mail elections.”

USPS delays are expected play a huge role in the 2020 election, and the issue has become the subject of partisan debate. The Postal Service recently sent memos to many states, including Mississippi, saying it might not be able to deliver the ballots in a timely fashion. More people are expected to vote via mail this November to prevent crowded polling places in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At one point, President Donald Trump, who opposes voting by mail though he does it himself, said he opposed federal funding to ensure the Post Office can carry out its functions, especially delivering and returning election ballots. The Post Office has been negatively impacted because of a slowdown in the volume of mail caused by the pandemic.

“Now they need that money in order to make the Post Office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” Trump said, adding if federal funds were not appropriated for the Post Office, “you can’t have universal mail-in voting because they’re not equipped to have it.”

The Democratic-controlled U.S. House has approved $25 billion to boost the Postal Service. The Republican-controlled Senate has thus far refused to take up any legislation.

In 2016, 28,716 ballots were mailed out in Mississippi. Watson said people eligible to vote absentee should request a ballot as soon as possible. The ballots should be available no later than Sept. 21.

Mississippi is the only state to require both a ballot application request and the ballot to be notarized. Many states, particularly during the pandemic, are either sending out ballots to all registered voters or at least are mailing out ballot applications.

Mississippi opted to do neither. Mississippi is also among a minority of states that do not have no excuse early voting.

“We have the most restrictive, onerous, difficult vote by mail laws in the nation,” said Sen. David Blount of Jackson. “We needed to change the laws before the coronavirus. We certainly need to change them now.”

Still, Gov. Tate Reeves said he believes all “legal” votes cast in the state will be counted despite the coronavirus.

“I am comfortable that Mississippi election laws that have allowed us to execute elections over so many years are adequate at this time in the middle of a pandemic,” Reeves said. “I think we can have a safe and fair election in November.”

In Mississippi, to vote early in person or by mail a person must be over the age of 65, be disabled or be away from home on election day. Earlier this year the Legislature did pass a bill to allow a person under a physician-imposed quarantine because of the coronavirus to vote absentee. Some question whether the change in law allowing people to vote early under a quarantine order actually could make it more difficult for people to vote early during the pandemic. Some believe existing language in the law – without any changes this year by the Legislature — would have given circuit clerks the authority to allow people to vote early under a provision saying people with a temporary disability could vote early.

A lawsuit, filed by the Mississippi Center for Justice, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Mississippi on behalf of a group of Mississippians, is asking for a judicial ruling allowing all people to vote early because of concerns about voter safety.

The Legislature also has changed the law to allow mail-in ballots to be counted as long as they are postmarked by election day and received at the local county circuit clerk’s office within five days of the election. Under the old law, the ballots had to be received at the circuit clerk’s office the day before the election.

In Mississippi, the law does not prevent a notary from charging to notarize a ballot or ballot application though, the Secretary of State’s office does have a regulation preventing it. But the office concedes the law would trump the regulation. It is not clear whether out of state notaries can charge for Mississippians who are sending in a ballot from out of state.

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