Then-rep. (now-senator) @DebarDennis presented SB 2552 to the House, which also passed it unanimously. 3/
2⃣ Then-Sen. @SallyDoty introduced SB 2707 (2017), co-sponsored by @SenDavidBlount and former Sens. Bob Dearing and Bill Stone, to allow college students voting absentee to have their college registrar witness their absentee ballot application and envelope. 4/
Sen. @McMahanMS asked whether it would strengthen or weaken the voting process to allow college registrars to witness students' voting materials.
Doty emphasized the difficulty for college students to vote under the current system and the reasonableness of SB 2707. 5/
Former Sen. Billy Hudson opined that Doty's bill would discriminate against 18- to 22-year-olds who don't go to college but work away from home in Texas, who would still have to go to two notaries.
Doty responded that another bill could address the situation Hudson described. 6/
Since Doty had mentioned that the MS College Republicans supported SB 2707, Sen. @SenSBNorwood noted that the MS College Democrats supported it too. 7/
The Senate passed Doty's bill by a vote of 30-20, with Sen. Hill courageously voting present. Notably, Sens. Debar, McDaniel, and Watson all opposed the bill.
In which MS state senator Barbara Blackmon in 2021 tells @BobbyHarrison9 that Mississippi exploits black-majority districts to pack black voters, which Kirk Fordice in 1992 admitted to @cspan that Mississippi did.
Shoveling SO MANY black voters into 34 isn't necessary for black voters to have a fair chance to elect a candidate of choice in 34. It just makes 42 a Klan district.
Palazzo is the original sponsor of a resolution to condemn and censure President Obama, which Palazzo introduced in the US House in 2016 congress.gov/bill/114th-con…
MS Gov. @tatereeves responded to the Capitol siege today by saying that "in this country, we settle our political disputes by debating on the floor of [the US and Mississippi House and Senate]."
Tate's explanation is kinda weird because... 1/4
...when the MS Senate considered HB 1521, the bill that set out MS's voting procedures for the 2020 election, elections chair Jenifer Branning returned from private conference with a wholly rewritten bill and refused to allow debate before the vote. 2/4
Branning explained that she did not believe other senators respected the vote she cast the previous day against taking down Mississippi's now-retired Confederate state flag and that, as a result, she would not allow debate on the entirely separate elections bill. 3/4
QUICKTHREAD: The defense of Initiative 65 that @LynnFitchAG offered on behalf of @MichaelWatsonMS is not a good one because it would give the #MSleg full rein to decide whether voters have the right to put state constitutional amendments on the ballot. 1/
By Fitch/Watson's reading, that right—the right of voters to propose state constitutional amendments—exists only because MS statutes still say we have five Congressional districts, and the right would automatically disappear when MS redistricts in the next year or two. 2/
To illustrate the absurdity of Fitch/Watson's reading...imagine MS regains a fifth Congressional seat after the 2030 census. The #MSleg could simply refuse to redistrict (as it did after the 2000 and 2010 censuses) to prevent the right from reviving. 3/