The three-month 2022 legislative session is scheduled to begin at noon Tuesday. The Enterprise-Journal asked lawmakers who serve Pike and surrounding counties to give their outlook on three issues: medical marijuana and the ballot initiative process that was eliminated along with it in a court ruling last year, Gov. Tate Reeves’ proposal to eliminate the income tax and possible measures regarding election security.
For information on the Mississippi Legislature and to keep track of legislation, visit http://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/.
Following the 2020 Presidential election, states including Texas, Florida and Georgia made changes to election laws, saying more security was needed.
But opponents see it as a way to limit access to the ballot, particularly among voters who would be likely to vote against them anyway. Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves listed election security as a key priority in his executive budget proposal. Do you think similar legislation is on the horizon in Mississippi? If so, what do you think it would propose? Would you support it?
Rep. Daryl Porter, D-Summit
Rep. Daryl Porter, D-Summit, not only opposes Gov. Tate Reeves’ desire to increase election security, he favors making it easier to vote.
“I will never support any measures that would make it more difficult for people to have access to the ballot box,” he said. “I think that is definitely a modern-day voter suppression and I’ll never be in support of that. I don’t agree with what Texas has done. I don’t agree with what Florida has done. I don’t agree with what Georgia has done.”
Porter said the desire for election security in several states comes from the fallout of the 2020 Presidential election.
“I would not be in support of anything of the like in the state of Mississippi,” Porter said. “If anything, we need to be creating easier ways for people to vote.
“I think that it is being masked with this whole voter security because of this ridiculous ploy to say that the election was stolen from the former President or that there was mass voter fraud when it was proven that none of that took place. There was never mass voter fraud. The election wasn’t stolen. I think that narrative is what’s pushing these other states to try to ‘provide more election security or voter security.’ In all actuality, it’s my belief that it’s just a way to suppress the vote and I’ll never support any measures that would do that.”
Porter said expanding early and mail-in voting are two ways to make it easier for citizens to vote.
“I think, if anything, we could start looking at more of our mail-in voting,” he said. “Obviously, with the pandemic going, that’s something that’s essential — early voting and mail-in voting.”
Sen. Melanie Sojourner, R-Natchez
Sen. Melanie Sojourner, R-Natchez, hopes to pass election security laws this session.
“From the very beginning I’ve been a strong supporter of election integrity and securing our election, knowing who is voting in our elections,” she said.
She said there have been issues of voting irregularities in southwest Mississippi, including Pike County, where a candidate was accused of living in another county in 2019.
“In this state we’ve often seen a blind eye turned to election integrity. It’s past time for the sake of all voters — how can we assure that your vote is really being cast?” Sojourner said.
“When fraud is identified, we have to get serious about prosecuting it because if there are no repercussions, nothing’s ever going to change,” she said. “If the laws are stringent — and a lot of them currently are — we’ve just got people in the courts turning a blind eye.”
A number of election integrity bills were offered in the Senate last year, most of which didn’t go anywhere, she said. She hopes this time will be different.
In particular, she opposes online voting, extended absentee voting and mail-in ballots.
“They open up opportunities for fraud,” Sojourner said. “If voting is truly one of our most sacred rights — and it is and it should be — there’s no reason one day out of the year the overwhelming majority should not be able to go to the voter polls.”
Sen. Kelvin Butler, D-McComb
Sen. Kelvin Butler, D-McComb, wants to increase voter access, not restrict it, which is what he says any election security legislation will aim to do.
“I would not support anything that would disenfranchise voters,” Butler said. “That’s the first thing. I think it’s another attempt to disenfranchise voters that would normally go to the poll and vote. We do not have a problem with our voting system.
“We have a great system and it works and I think a lot of times when you have other states in this country that are looking at changing things, again, is only an attempt to disenfranchise voters and I totally disagree with that.”
Butler pointed out that when he ran in a special election in November, fewer than 6,000 out of 32,000 registered voters came to the polls.
“Voter apathy is just bad,” he said. “A lot of people just are not going to the polls and not voting because I think they see all the negativity go on in the voter process, all the things that are said. We need to try to get people to go vote and support democracy for everybody to make it work.”
Butler said he goes to churches, schools and community meets to try and involve citizens in the voting process.
Butler said there has not been any widespread voter fraud in past elections.
“We elect people all the time,” he said. “We have no fraud. Right now, we have voter ID law in this state. We’re not having any fraud. Nothing is going wrong. You haven’t heard anything about folks challenging elections or any of that kind of thing. My opinion is that tells you right there the system works, so why are we going to mess with it?”
Butler did not support voter ID laws when he previously served in the Senate, he said.
“I thought that was a way to disenfranchise voters, but, by all means, it is the law,” he said. “I’m a citizen of this state as well as well as a lawmaker, so I have to abide by the law.”
Rep. Sam Mims V, R-McComb
Rep. Sam Mims V, R-McComb, believes in strong election security and says Mississippi is already in good shape in that regard.
“In southwest Mississippi and in Pike County we have great circuit clerks, we have great election commissioners, and our secretary of state, Michael Watson, is doing a great job as well,” he said.
Unlike some states that expanded voting access during COVID-19, “we did not change our election laws based on the pandemic,” Mims said. “We did not expand the mail-in voting like other states did.”
Mims considers the election process in Mississippi “very fair and very secure.”
“So there is no election fraud we need to fix,” he said. “The elections in 2020 were very secure and went very well. I’m comfortable we are doing a good job in Mississippi.”
He believes voting records must be accurate and that registered voters must cast their ballots in the right location.
Mims said he hasn’t seen election integrity measures proposed by Gov. Reeves, but “if that legislation makes the election process more secure and safer, then I’m absolutely in favor of that.”
Rep. Bill Pigott, R-Tylertown
Concerning elections, Pigott said there could be action to strengthen voting security.
“The secretary of state has taken a good look at our elections, and we’re in pretty good shape,” he said. “We could make some tweaks to make sure we have secure elections. I think absentee ballot provisions will be looked at, and also I think we may strengthen our ID requirements.”
Pigott said he has several bills on other concerns coming, including support for the Mississippi State University Extension Service and a bill concerning the bankruptcy of a grain elevator that could deal a severe financial to a number of farmers in the state.
“We have to do something to save our farmers,” he said. “I know one farmer who has about $4 million tied up in that grain elevator. That probably the biggest issue we’ll face this year” on the Agriculture Committee, which Pigott chairs.
For all other matters, “we’ll take things as they come,” he said. “We never know what we might be faced with. We’ll do the best we can on what we get.”
Rep. Vince Mangold, R-Brookhaven
Election security, which has been a hot issue in other states in the aftermath of last year’s presidential election, is not a priority for Mississippi in Mangold’s estimation.
“I don’t know what else we can do,” he said. “Our voter ID law has worked. It’s a model for other states. I haven’t heard anything mentioned about” election security.
Mangold is vice chair of the House’s Agriculture Committee and sits on Appropriations, Congressional Redistricting, Conservation and Water Resources, Education, Ethics, Forestry, Legislative Reapportionment, Transportation and Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks.
