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Mississippi fire chief faces scrutiny after calling Legislative Black Caucus ‘a racist symbol’

CLARKSDALE — Shortly after the Legislature removed the state flag, which featured the Confederate battle emblem, the Coahoma County fire chief took to social media to say another “racist symbol” in the state should be taken down: the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus.

Time to tear down another racist symbol in the state. The MS Black Legislative Caucus,” Coahoma County Fire Chief Jerry Mills wrote on Facebook on June 29.

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Jerry Mills, chief of Coahoma County Fire Department

Mills, who faces calls for his termination over the comment, manages the Coahoma County Fire Department, which serves the entire county except for the city of Clarksdale. He has worked in the fire department for over 20 years, he said.

After lawmakers voted to remove the state flag on June 28, the Clarksdale Press Register shared a Facebook post from state Rep. Orlando Paden, D-Clarksdale, stating: “We are working for the progress and for the image of Mississippi. #TakeItDown #RetiretheMSFlag Let’s move forward. #LegislativeSession2020”

Mills wrote his comment under the newspaper’s shared post.

Black citizens and residents of Coahoma County have publicly blasted Mills over the post and expressed eagerness to have him removed from his leadership position.

Will Smith, a Coahoma County native and educator, wrote this post:

Coahoma County Fire Chief Jerry Mills – This is unacceptable. Accountability please!

I engaged in a conversation with a gentleman from Clarksdale. I did not know who he was, until today. Coahoma County Board of Supervisors should vote to fire the Fire Chief. I hope the Coahoma County Supervisors are not condoning this guy. He should not receive another dollar from the taxpayers of Coahoma County. As fire chief, you serve as a public servant. Spreading hate has no place in Coahoma County or anywhere. We expect the elected officials to stand up for the people of Coahoma County. A vote of no confidence and fire the fire chief. Derrell Washington Paul Pearson Johnny Newson, what are you going to do? Please don’t tell me you can’t do anything because we know that is false. If the board attorney tells you cannot do anything, he needs to be fired as well. #LeadershipMatters

Mills doubled down, later commenting under Smith’s post: “What’s so controversial? You have an exclusively black group of state legislatures (sic), that don’t allow white legislators, claiming a flag is racist. …. I would like to know what the White Caucus thinks about this though.”

In a phone conversation with Mississippi Today, Mills said organizations like the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus further divides the state by calling the state flag “racist or a hate symbol.”

“I’m just standing on the ground that says if you are elected by taxpayers, you should represent your district, your area, your county or whatever — you should represent everyone in your area,” Mills said. “There shouldn’t be any caucus for one group.”

When asked if Mills thought his comments were offensive, he responded by saying, “they’re trying to make me out as a racist.”

“I’ve got 60 something guys on the fire department, and I guarantee they won’t find one of them who thinks I’m a racist,” he added.

Several members of the Coahoma County Board of Supervisors could not be reached for comment.

Conversations about racial justice and racist behavior by government leaders throughout the state has intensified in the past month since the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed by a police officer in Minnesota.

Over the past three weeks, sports leaders, religious groups, and top business officials, pressured state lawmakers to remove the state flag or risk losing their business and support. After weeks of conversation, both chambers voted to suspend the rules to pave way for the state flag legislation. This week, Gov. Tate Reeves signed the bill into law.

This isn’t the first time an official in Clarksdale took to social media to express offensive views. Last month, a nurse was fired after writing a lengthy Facebook post calling protesters “wild animals” and encouraging them to kill their own family members, burn their houses down and think about their actions.

The post Mississippi fire chief faces scrutiny after calling Legislative Black Caucus ‘a racist symbol’ appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Letter from the Editor: Mississippi’s historic flag change

Lawmakers made history on Sunday by voting to remove the Mississippi state flag, which was the last in the nation featuring the Confederate battle emblem. Governor Tate Reeves signed the bill into law last night. Adopted 126 years ago, that flag has long been a point of political contention and debate. Many elected officials have spent their whole political lives trying to pull down that flag, but hundreds of bills and initiatives have failed over the course of several decades. The question I’ve been asked most the past couple days: How did this change happen now, in 2020, during an unprecedented legislative session in the midst of a worldwide health pandemic?

Many who deserve credit may never get it because of the work they did behind the scenes. This outcome didn’t come as a result of one moment, one person, or one group. It was this confluence of years of grassroots organizing, civic pressure, and political courage. I’ve never seen Mississippians rally around something so passionately and effectively when it mattered most. This was a wholly democratic process; the Legislature represented the will of the people. It was so beautifully Mississippi, and I’ll never forget it.

I was recently asked about how we saw our role as journalists in this debate. We cover politics, and we avoid partisanship. But unlike any issue we’ve covered, to use a cliché — this wasn’t about right versus left, it was about right versus wrong. I dare to say that this historic movement would have quickly fallen off the legislative agenda, once again, if it were not for the team at Mississippi Today.

We started by listening. One of the focal points of the historic Black Lives Matter protest on June 6 in downtown Jackson was changing the flag. After covering the protest, our team was inspired: With three weeks left in the 2020 legislative session, just what would it take to have the flag removed? Framed with the voices of activists from the protest, we outlined exactly how the Legislature could move forward on a flag change. The very next day, I received a call from a lawmaker who said that he’d read the article and was among a group of House members gathering to discuss changing the flag.

Then we took a chance. Using his tip, we published a story about this backroom, bipartisan conversation at the Capitol to change the flag. While we received sharp criticism from politicos that our story came too soon — before legislators had enough time to whip votes in veiled exchange —  we focused on fulfilling our mission of informing and engaging our readers. As we suspected would be the case, our reporting ignited public conversation on the issue. Though the pressure dialed up that week, we were still assured by legislative leaders that there was very little chance of action on the flag in 2020. Hearing that really bothered me, so our politics team met and strategized.

Next we decided to apply some public pressure. We designed a plain and simple tally of where each lawmaker stood on the legislative action regarding the flag, and our political reporters began polling all 174 members. That list was cited in newspapers around the world as attention on the debate grew. Soon after publishing the tally, we followed with a list of municipalities, universities, private businesses and associations that had stopped flying the flag or had publicly called for its removal. That list never stopped growing.

We broke the story on the NCAA ceasing postseason play in Mississippi, and our reporting on SEC commissioner Greg Sankey’s denouncement of the flag went viral. Our columnist Rick Cleveland deeply and poignantly covered the influence the sports world had on lawmakers. We developed a survey to gauge the perspectives of everyday Mississippians, and more than 5,000 readers shared their personal position on the flag with us, which further informed our reporting. All the while, our editor at large Marshall Ramsey drew several powerful cartoons about the debate, broadening the reach of our reporting.

Today, we wake up to a better Mississippi because our journalists helped hold legislative leaders accountable and ensure processes were transparent and public-facing. Is this something you can get behind?

I am asking you to dig deep and support a better trajectory for our state: One based on freedom of information, and communities engaged in civic conversation. We provide that, like no other news organization has done before, and our nonprofit newsroom needs your support.

The post Letter from the Editor: Mississippi’s historic flag change appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi education takes pandemic-fueled budget cuts, no teacher pay raise

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

Magee Elementary School teacher Annashi Wyatt works with students as they work on a phonics and phonemic awareness exercise Friday, December 6, 2019.

Mississippi’s K-12 public education is taking a pandemic-fueled budget cut for the coming year under spending approved by lawmakers on Tuesday.

And the coronavirus economic slump forced the Legislature to scrap a teacher pay raise many top officials had promised when they ran for office last year.

Lawmakers adopted an overall $2.2 billion public education budget for the fiscal year that begins Wednesday, a cut of more than $70 million, or 2.7 percent.

The spending shorts the Mississippi Adequate Education Program – a formula that by law is supposed to set minimum funding for schools – by about $250 million. MAEP spending is taking a year-over-year cut of 1.6 percent, or about $37 million.

House Education Chairman Richard Bennett said that given cuts to other agencies due to projected revenue loss from the coronavirus pandemic-fueled economic slump, K-12 fared well.

“MAEP and education took less of a hit than all others,” Bennett said.

Public education advocates appeared to share Bennett’s view that cuts could be worse given the pandemic and economic climate. The Mississippi Department of Education declined comment through a spokeswoman.

In a statement on Monday, the Mississippi Association of School Superintendents said it realizes the impact the pandemic has had on state revenue, and is grateful the current year’s budget for schools didn’t get chopped as well. MASS said it hopes the state economy – and government revenue – will start to turn around in July.

“While most agencies got at least a 5 percent reduction for next year, K-12 was treated very fairly …,” the MASS statement said. “We are pleased that the legislators understand the tremendous struggle that K-12 education is having at this time and prepared our budget accordingly.”

Nancy Loome, director of the Parents Campaign public education advocacy group, also expressed gratitude that cuts aren’t deeper and thanked lawmakers for “mitigating them.”

But Loome said it shouldn’t be lost that “this does underfund our public schools by $250 million” at a time when schools are being asked to cope with safely educating children during the pandemic.

“All of those things cost money, and then they’re being funded less than last year,” Loome said. “I’m not sure how you add teachers to have smaller classrooms to abide by safety guidelines.

“… We’ve been asking our public schools to do more with less for decades,” Loome said.

Bennett and Senate Appropriations Chairman Briggs Hopson told lawmakers that other money, from the federal coronavirus relief bill, could help ameliorate cuts to public education. Lawmakers are directing millions of the federal money to schools to purchase computers and tablets and to provide internet access to more areas of the largely rural state.

“Hopefully that will fill part of that gap,” Bennett said. “All schools spend money to some extent on technology already, and this would help cover that … Hopefully we’ll see things like getting away from hardback books, going to electronic, which are much cheaper.”

Bennett said public education’s coming expenses and operations, like so many other things, are up in the air with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Projected shortfalls caused lawmakers earlier to scrap a planned teacher pay raise for the coming year that appeared assured of passage before the pandemic hit. It would have given a $1,100 a year raise to teachers in their first three years and $1,000 for others. Mississippi teachers remain among the lowest paid in the nation.

“We just couldn’t do it – conditions wouldn’t allow it,” Bennett said. “We couldn’t put that burden on taxpayers, given everything else going on, people out of work.”

Kelly Riley, director of Mississippi Professional Educators, said: “We appreciate the Legislature not cutting K-12 as significantly as they were forced to cut other agencies. We will continue to work with legislative leaders on a teacher pay raise, as a pay raise is critical to addressing teacher recruitment and retention.”

The post Mississippi education takes pandemic-fueled budget cuts, no teacher pay raise appeared first on Mississippi Today.

After waffling for years, Gov. Tate Reeves signs bill to change state flag

Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

Tate Reeves prepares during the August 2019 GOP gubernatorial debate at WJTV studios.

Gov. Tate Reeves, who for years refused to take a stance on whether Mississippi should change its state flag, signed a bill that does just that on Tuesday in a private ceremony at the Governor’s Mansion.

“I know there are people of goodwill who are not happy to see this flag change,” Reeves said shortly before signing the bill into law on Tuesday. “They fear a chain reaction of events erasing our history — a history that is no doubt complicated and imperfect. I understand those concerns and am determined to protect Mississippi from that dangerous outcome.”

Reeves continued: “I also understand the need to commit the 1894 flag to history, and find a banner that is a better emblem for all Mississippi… A flag is a symbol of our present, of our people, and of our future. For those reasons, we need a new symbol.”

The signing on Tuesday — a historic moment as the last official step in removing the flag, which was adopted in 1894 and featured the Confederate battle emblem — comes after Reeves isolated himself from both sides of the flag debate. 

In all his public statements, including the one he gave shortly before he signed the bill on Tuesday, he equivocated and worked to plant one foot on each side of the debate. Reeves, who has consistently campaigned on not changing the flag except by referendum, refused to answer questions from reporters several times the past month about his personal stance on the flag.

In a June 10 press conference, Reeves dodged four separate questions about whether he felt the flag represented all Mississippians and should be changed.

“I believe that at some point people will want to change the flag, but it should be done by a vote of the people, not by a vote of politicians doing a backroom deal in Jackson,” Reeves said at the time. “I believe that if we’re going to have real change in our state, we’ve got to deal with the issue of the flag in such a way in which all Mississippians can come together at the end, rally around one another with whatever decision is made and work together to make a better Mississippi.”

After the Legislature passed the bill to change the state flag on Sunday, people close with Reeves have been privately telling some of the state’s top business leaders that the governor deserves credit for whipping the Senate votes necessary to remove the flag. Several Senate leaders scoffed at that notion, telling Mississippi Today the governor played no role in the effort.

On Sunday, shortly after the bill was signed in both chambers, Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said he had not talked to Reeves on the historic weekend when lawmakers voted to remove the flag. When a reporter asked House Speaker Philip Gunn if he had spoken with Reeves over the weekend, Gunn paused a beat and simply replied: “No.”

During the debate, Reeves effectively earned the ire of both the hardcore supporters of the flag and the most outspoken critics of the banner.

“Tate Reeves is moved by money, not morality,” said Lea Campbell, the president of the Mississippi Rising Coalition, a group that actively lobbied lawmakers to change the flag. “So when this became an issue about economics, he caved. As long as he’s been a Mississippi politician, Reeves has demonstrated his commitment to defending the symbols of white supremacy and the systems that enforce it because it has been financially beneficial for him and his allies. The flag issue is no different.”

Campbell continued: “He knows that flag symbolizes the system of white supremacy and all the oppression, violence and terror used to enforce it, and he’s OK with that. What he and his allies weren’t OK with is losing money. The only thing that moves white supremacy is power and money. If he didn’t change the flag, he stood to lose both.”

On Saturday morning, as lawmakers arrived to the Capitol to vote on the procedural motion that paved the way for the Sunday flag vote, Reeves released a statement that said he would sign any bill lawmakers sent him.

“We should not be under any illusion that a vote in the Capitol is the end of what must be done — the job before us is to bring the state together and I intend to work night and day to do it,” Reeves posted on Saturday morning. “… No matter where you are…I love you, Mississippi.”

But the governor’s promise to sign the bill was met with scorn from legislative leaders, as their proposal to remove the flag passed both the House and Senate by more than the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto, had the governor opted to try to block the bill from becoming law.

Upon the release of that Saturday statement and as lawmakers began to vote, pro-flag Mississippians blasted Reeves on social media, saying they regretted voting for him in 2019 and swearing to ensure he would not be re-elected in 2023.

Several popular Facebook groups — like the Mississippians to Keep the Flag of 1894 — have effectively turned into an anti-Tate Reeves pages, posting memes and statements like: “We need to nail Governor Tate Reeves to the wall, we are being betrayed, he is telling us our vote does not count. WHO ELECTED TATE REEVES and WHY DID WE ELECT HIM?… GIVE HIM HELL BEFORE BREAKFAST, BEFORE LUNCH and BEFORE SUPPER.”

“I am disappointed in Gov. Reeves,” said George Bond, the chairman of the Coalition to Save the State Flag. “The people of the state of Mississippi voted for him due to the fact he campaigned on his beliefs that any change to the flag would be sent to the people. He may try to hide behind the fact that technically we do get to decide on the flag design in November, but that design is forced upon us by the Legislature.”

Bond continued: “It’s basically like saying, ‘You can have whatever you want, as long as it’s this.’  That is a shame.”

As House and Senate leaders worked during recent days to garner the legislative votes to change the flag, Reeves seemed to flounder on how to deal with the volatile issue. He called a meeting with five of the other seven statewide elected officials to gauge their feelings on the issue. Hosemann and Attorney General Lynn Fitch were not at the meeting.

By the time of the meeting, all of the statewide officials except Reeves and Secretary of State Michael Watson had endorsed removing the old flag, though most did not say whether it should be done by a vote of the people or by the Legislature.

The bill Reeves signed on Tuesday now becomes law. The Mississippi Department of Archives and History has 15 days to officially retire the state flag.

A nine-person commission will be appointed to develop a single new design by September, and Mississippi voters will approve or reject that design on the November 2020 ballot. In the meantime, Mississippi will have no official state flag.

The new design “will not include the Confederate battle flag but shall include the words ‘In God We Trust’,” the law reads. Should voters reject that design in November, the commission would present a new option during the 2021 legislative session.

The post After waffling for years, Gov. Tate Reeves signs bill to change state flag appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Today sweeps 2020 Green Eyeshades Awards for digital news

Mississippi Today journalists were recognized this week for awards in five categories of digital news by the Green Eyeshades Awards. The Green Eyeshades Awards was established in 1950 to recognize excellence in journalism in the Southeastern United States. This highly competitive awards program is administered by Southern members of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Mississippi Today reporters and reporting teams in criminal justice, education, equity and sports commentary take home 2020 honors.

Deadline Reporting / Online
• Second Place: Mississippi Today – Staff, Immigration Raids in Mississippi

Investigative Reporting / Online
• Second Place: Mississippi Today – Anna Wolfe, Alternative Data

Sports Commentary / Online
• First Place: Mississippi Today – Rick Cleveland, Sports Columns by Rick Cleveland

Business Reporting / Online
• First Place: Mississippi Today – Anna Wolfe, Jobs, Poverty and the Mississippi Economy

Public Service in Online Journalism
• Second Place: Mississippi Today and The Hechinger Report – Aallyah Wright, Kelsey Davis, Eric Shelton, Mississippi’s Teacher Shortage Crisis

The post Mississippi Today sweeps 2020 Green Eyeshades Awards for digital news appeared first on Mississippi Today.

COVID-19 data: Positivity rate

The post COVID-19 data: Positivity rate appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Guess It Matters S3E6 – Studio Sessions

Video version of the Podcast

Last week we discussed how to approach your set list. It must have been a great topic because our subscribers grew. We need everyone to make sure and subscribe and share our YouTube channel. Once we get to 100 subscribers we get our own personalized YouTube address. We also want to make it interesting with a giveaway. We aren’t sure yet what the giveaway will be maybe you can message us and let us know what types of things you would like to win. We’d also like to hear from you on our Facebook page or email with some topics you’d like to hear us cover on the podcast.

Over the years we have worked with some amazing producers. Sometimes when you are getting to know your producers you find out that they have a professional distance with new recording artists. You really want your producer to be part of the band “so to speak”. You want the creative flow to be open and honest. Sometimes this professional distance stems from artists having a greater expectation about themselves than what the reality really is. If you have ever walked into a studio to record and if feels like the producer isn’t getting you the quality you expected, or the experience you expected you’ll find one of the problems in this equation in one of the rooms located in every studio. The bathroom – where you’ll find a mirror. Now don’t get us wrong the issue is fixable but you can’t expect it to be fixed at 150 an hour trying to cut your songs. There is a lot you need to learn before walking into a studio. On this episode we are going to provide a few helpful hints that might help make your next recording session a bit more productive and successful.

If you are not under a recording contract that the record company is paying for chances are you are paying for your record. That is 99% of how most albums are done now. One of the biggest mistakes a person or group makes going into the studio is showing up not fully prepared. Now, this one is very easy to overlook because one of the things I learned early when first doing studio work is you don’t know what you don’t know. If you spend 10 hours a day 7 days a week rehearsing your material and you are learning your parts wrong – that’s one habit that will be the hardest to break once you step behind the studio mic. Another way people lack preparedness is that they are used to singing with live monitors and not headphones. This will mess up your pitch if you are not used to what you are hearing. If you are an artists that doesn’t like to hear yourself on a recording – then you might want to re-think whether a studio recording is the best choice for you. Normally, what is live and the techniques of studio recording have just enough differences to throw you off while you are working on getting the best out of your recording. The best practice is to record yourself with your phone or digital audio workstation through your computer and see what it sounds like on less than studio quality gear. Then, you work on the areas that stand out the most and once you get into the studio – that part won’t give you as many problems. 

Now, there are some things that you can practice on that will help you not only in the studio but live. For solo vocalist, the biggest obstacle is breathing. A lot of vocalist don’t know how to breathe through their phrasings. Breathing is a very important part to your singing. Pronouncing your words correctly and in pitch is another obstacle. If you notice that vowels sounds at the end of words are causing you pitch problems then that is a great place to concentrate. You should learn to hold your E and AH sounds and you should work on how to cut those off when necessary on endings.

For vocal groups, phrasing seems to be a huge problem in the studio. We know that with modern equipment it tends to make us lazy but even modern computers can’t fix 4 different humans pronouncing their S’s. One thing we work on is allowing the lead vocalist to say the S at the end of a word and everyone else not. For example – the lead vocalist might sing the word “place” but everyone else in the group would say – play but end with the lead vocalist. That will make your phrasing so much better in the studio and live. It is so subtle that the audience doesn’t catch it – but when you have 4 people holding their S’s differently it stands out. What is overwhelming is that is ONE vocal sound and there are many others. We work a lot on words that have T’s in them. If you can get them together then that is fantastic. The object is that you are creating an instrumentation with your voice that sounds consistent.

Working with producers over the years we have also heard them complain about people being original. Originality is your greatest asset as an artist. Originality sets you a part from being a parody or imitation of an original. Now, a lot of Elvis impersonators have made a mint doing that type of entertaining but that’s it  – they can never explore any other options than the life of Elvis. If you sing or play music to express your belief and your love for music – be original. It is okay to phrase your words like your heroes or try to mimic their vocal impressions but that’s should only be .05% of it. The other 99.95% should all you and who God made you to be. We hope this discussion helps and if you have any questions about any of our podcasts – feel free to drop us a line on facebook or by email (shayandmichi@gmail.com). Leave us a comment on the youtube video and we’ll answer it. Thanks for stopping by and don’t forget to like and subscribe to our channel! Also, if you know someone working in the studio – send them a link to our video or podcast. We would like to give a shout-out to some of our friends that are producers! Tommy Swindle, Jonathan Goodwin, Scott Godsey, Dale Maxwell, Darren Morton, Anthony Bollinger, David Hollaway and the late and very dear friend of ours Dave Wilcox. Thank you for teaching us and helping all the singers be their best.

If it matters to you – it Matters to us! 

Voters could remove Jim Crow law designed to thwart African American-backed candidates

Voters will have the opportunity in November to remove a Jim Crow-era provision from the state Constitution that makes Mississippi the only state in the nation where a candidate for statewide office can win a majority of the popular vote and not be elected.

The Mississippi Constitution, adopted in 1890, requires the winning candidate for governor and for other statewide offices to obtain both a majority of the popular vote and win the most votes in a majority of the 122 House districts. If no candidate obtains both of those requirements, the Mississippi House of Representatives gets to choose the winner of the top two vote-getters.

But a resolution passed this month by both chambers of the Mississippi Legislature would remove that requirement. This week’s legislative action means that Mississippi voters will decide in November whether to remove that provision from the Constitution.

The provision was placed in the Constitution in 1890, according to the written account of that time, to ensure Black Mississippians, then a majority in the state, were not elected to statewide office. The state House districts were configured in a manner to ensure white Mississippians would have a majority in that chamber.

The Legislature acted in response to a federal lawsuit challenging whether the electoral provisions violated principles of the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit was filed last year in the midst of the gubernatorial race between Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood and Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves.

The lawsuit claimed that under the gerrymandered House districts, Hood would have had to win as much as 55 percent of the popular vote to win the majority of the House districts. In effect, the plaintiffs argued, the provision dilutes the strength of African American voters, who are more prone to vote for the Democratic candidate in Mississippi.

U.S. Judge Daniel Jordan of the Southern District of Mississippi did not rule on the lawsuit but expressed “grave concerns” and indicated he might rule at a later date if the election was impacted by the provision or if the Legislature did not act to remove the provision. Jordan met with legislative leaders about the issue before the 2020 session began. With Reeves garnering 52 percent of the vote and winning the majority of the House districts, the provision throwing the election into the House was not a factor.

The lawsuit was filed by the National Redistricting Foundation and the Mississippi Center for Justice on behalf of African American voters in the state. In a press release, the Mississippi Center for Justice pointed out that the Legislature’s final passage of the resolution on Monday comes one day after lawmakers addressed another 1890s-era issue: the removal of the state flag that has the Confederate battle emblem as part of its design.

“In the wake of the historic removal of the Confederate emblem from our state’s flag, we are pleased the Legislature is taking this additional step to remove this racist relic of the post-Reconstruction era from Mississippi law,” said Vangela M. Wade, president of the Mississippi Center for Justice. “In addition to joining in the lawsuit that led to this development, we are moving forward with our challenge to Mississippi’s felon disfranchisement law, which is another discriminatory provision of the 1890 Constitution. We want to take advantage of this important moment in American race relations to advance the cause of justice in our home state of Mississippi.”

If approved by voters in November, the provision will be removed, but Mississippi will still be in a minority of states. Under the resolution approved by the Legislature and pending the approval of the voters, Mississippi would become one of only three states in the nation to require a runoff between the top two vote-getters if no candidate achieves a majority of the votes. Georgia and Louisiana require runoffs. Vermont’s statewide elections are thrown to its legislature to decide if no candidate obtains a majority.

Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, was one of two senators to vote against the resolution. He supported removing the provision throwing elections into the House but opposed placing in the Constitution the runoff. He said the runoff could be placed in general law.

It takes more votes (two-thirds of both chambers and a vote of the people) to change constitutional provisions than it does general law, which requires only a majority to change.

“We are tying the hands of future legislatures,” said Bryan, who said a future legislature might want to do ranked voting. Ranked voting gives extra points to candidates who finish No. 2 in a multiple candidate field in order to select a winner.

Senate Constitution Chair Chris Johnson, R-Hattiesburg, said, “Sen. Bryan has made valid points,” but indicated at this late date in the session senators should pass the language before them creating the runoff.

The only instances where the electoral provision was a factor were in three consecutive elections in the 1990s.

Editor’s note: Vangela M. Wade is a member of Mississippi Today’s board of directors.

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