There were a lot of reasons to be excited about last year's election results, John, but what happened in Mississippi should give us all pause and show us why we need to fight in every state nationwide.
Mississippi has an egregious voting rights record and has the highest level of felony disenfranchisement in the country. A Jim Crow-era constitutional provision enables Mississippi to disenfranchise more than 10% of its total voting-age population and its disenfranchisement of Black voters exceeds 15%.
Mississippi has no early voting opportunities and a narrow set of qualifications for those seeking to vote absentee, meaning that the vast majority of ballots are cast on Election Day. This inaccessibility contributes to the state’s notoriously dismal voter turnout: In this year’s primary election, only 30% of those registered to vote turned out, the lowest rate since 2007.
On Election Day 2023 at least nine polling locations in the state’s most populous county — Hinds County, home of the city of Jackson — ran out of ballots multiple times throughout the day. The fight to extend polling hours became a confusing jumble of legal filings and contradicting orders all as voters waited in line -- and many left entirely due to the lack of ballots.
Also in Hinds County, opponents of voting rights in the state legislature have previously taken aim at Jackson and its over 80% Black population by creating a new court system with an unelected judge in a portion of Jackson and expanding the state-run Capitol Police force’s jurisdiction to cover the entire city rather than just a handful of government buildings.
Mississippi's playbook is clear: Disenfranchise, limit ballot access, obscure legal pathways for justice, rely on Jim Crow laws still on the books, and codify control for decades. Their endgame is power and control, not fairness or freedom.
John: Mississippi's voters deserve a real democracy. Stand up to make every vote count and every voice heard in Mississippi and beyond with $25 or whatever you can today >>
