BREAKING: After Mississippi lawmakers failed to pass early voting and Gov. Reeves vowed a veto if they did, one lawmaker and some citizens are taking the matter to voters.

They'll file a ballot initiative tomorrow mandating 10 days of early voting. 1/mississippifreepress.org/10802/voting-s…
If petitioners gather enough signatures and voters adopt the proposed change, the Mississippi Constitution would require AT LEAST 10 days of early voting, including the two Saturdays prior to the election.

Currently, Mississippi offers no early voting. 2/
mississippifreepress.org/10802/voting-s…
“Long lines discourage voting, and last year, Gov. Reeves stated he would veto early voting legislation. This year, there were nine early voting bills submitted, but none of them got out of committee," said House Rep. Hestor Jackson-McCray. #MSLeg 3/
mississippifreepress.org/10802/voting-s…
Mississippi is just one of six states that do not offer in-person early voting, alongside Connecticut, Kentucky, Missouri, New Hampshire and South Carolina. But the other five at least have universal mail/absentee options (or offered them in 2020). 4/ mississippifreepress.org/10802/voting-s…
On Nov. 5, 2020, Gov. Reeves used the fact that some states were taking longer to declare a winner in the presidential race due to tight margins to argue against early voting, claiming it led to "chaos." (Early voting wasn't the problem, though). 5/
mississippifreepress.org/10802/voting-s…
Gov. Reeves, Nov. 5, 2020: "I will...do everything in my power to make sure universal mail-in voting & no-excuse early voting are not allowed in MS—not while I'm governor! Too much chaos. Only way it'd happen is if many GOP legislators override a veto." 6/ mississippifreepress.org/10802/voting-s…
American voter turnout broke records last year, including in Mississippi, but the Magnolia State still lagged behind most other states, coming in at No. 45 with 60% of the voter eligible population casting a ballot compared to 67% nationwide. 7/
mississippifreepress.org/10802/voting-s…
Organizers said #MSLeg inaction & Gov. Reeves’ promise to veto any early-voting bills, is why they decided that voters needed to make the decision. They must gather at least 106,190 valid signatures within a 12 month-period to make the 2023 ballot. 8/
mississippifreepress.org/10802/voting-s…
Text of the initiative:

"The Mississippi Constitution shall be amended in Article 12 to add Section 244B: There shall be no fewer than ten (10) business days of early voting 8am-5pm before every election, which shall include the two Saturdays before every election..." 9/
"...at the responsible Clerk’s Office and qualifying early voting precincts. The responsible County Circuit Clerk or Municipal Clerk for every election shall include more early voting locations based on the number of registered voters: one additional early voting location..." 10/
"...is required for each increment of thirty thousand (30,000) registered County Voters or ten thousand (10,000) Municipal Voters according to the latest federal decennial census. Early voting ballot totals shall be saved using a system so that ballots can be recounted..." 11/
"...for election certification and audit. Early voting ballot totals shall be added to election day results before 7pm on election day. The Secretary of State shall promulgate rules and regulations necessary to effectuate early voting, including measures to inform..." 12/
"...the public about the availability of early voting. If this initiative is approved by the electors, it shall take effect thirty (30) days from the date of the official declaration of the vote by the Secretary of State." 13/ mississippifreepress.org/10802/voting-s…
But remember: Getting an initiative on the ballot is a costly process that can take millions of dollars, lots of organizing, and typically requires far more ballots than the stated minimum requirements (lots of signatures get struck by officials).
The Mississippi Free Press will keep reporting on voting & elections in a way that puts democracy first over partisan red vs. blue games.

If you support our mission to uplift democracy in MS, follow @MSFreePress & consider a 1-time or recurring donation: mfp.ms/donate
For those of you asking about how to sign it, it will take some weeks or a couple months after filing the petition before organizers can begin collecting signatures. Follow and stay tuned.
*Hester Jackson-McCray, not "Hestor."

Apologies for the misspelling. All the "Nestor" tweets in my timeline today threw me off my game. 😫

Thanks for catching and correcting @DonnerKay

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More from @ashtonpittman

1 Apr
When folks say Georgia's voting restrictions law "expands" early voting, they're talking it requiring counties to allow Saturday voting & hold 8 hours of early voting.

Large majority Black counties already do this.

So who benefits? 1/6
A lot of rural white counties in Georgia don't offer Saturday voting or Sunday voting and, in some cases, only do half days of early voting.

This law requires GOP-leaning white to hold early voting on Saturdays & for at least 8 hours (9-5). 2/6
So this "expansion" isn't for areas with majority Black voters or Democratic-leaning voters. It's to force majority white counties to make sure Black voters don't have an advantage.

3/6
Read 6 tweets
1 Apr
NEW: U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker is claiming that Georgia's new voter restrictions law "actually expands voting opportunities."

The Mississippi Republican is referring to a part of the law that mainly benefits rural white voters in GOP strongholds. 1/
mississippifreepress.org/10850/sen-wick…
Sen. Roger Wicker: “(Delta) Airlines CEO caves to the left with a false narrative about the new Georgia voting law, which actually expands voting opportunities. He should be ashamed of himself.”

But does it really? (Read on). 2/
mississippifreepress.org/10850/sen-wick…
Georgia's new law restricts voting in a number of ways, particularly ones most likely to impact Black voters.

But it actually requires rural polling places, typically in majority white, GOP-leaning parts of the state, to offer more early voting. 3/ mississippifreepress.org/10850/sen-wick…
Read 15 tweets
1 Apr
The news dudes pretending that maybe the intent of the Georgia Jim Crow law isn't so bad & that people are overreacting simply aren't qualified to tell the truth in this moment of peril for democracy.

To bolster his view, he cites the Heritage Foundation.
The Heritage Foundation, mind you, is one of the key forces behind these anti-voter Jim Crow laws:

"Heritage, through its politics arm Heritage Action for America, is planning to spend $24 million across 8 states: AZ, FL, GA, IA, MI, NV, TX and WI." nytimes.com/2021/03/23/us/…
The Heritage "Fact Check" says that there's no need to worry about the Jim Crow law letting the state usurp control over elections from select counties (surely they wouldn't target Democrat counties in Atlanta?!).

vox.com/22352112/georg…
Read 7 tweets
30 Mar
TIMELINE THREAD: From day one, Gov. @TateReeves' approach to the novel coronavirus pandemic has been to follow the virus' lead.

Repeatedly, instead of proactive measures to stop #COVID19 from pushing us to crisis mode, he waits until we are deep into crisis to take action.
ROUND 1

March 11, 2020: MS confirms 1st case as WHO declares pandemic. Gov. Reeves is vacationing in Spain.

March 24, 2020: Reeves will "wait-&-see" before issuing shelter-in-place order (1 Dead)

April 1, 2020: Reeves issues "shelter" order (22 Dead)mississippifreepress.org/9913/mississip…
ROUND 2

June 26, 2020: Dr. Dobbs predicts mass death, hospitals overwhelmed. (1,022 Dead)

July 9: Health leaders beg for mask mandate as ICUs fill up. (1,204 Dead)

Aug. 4: Reeves issues mask mandate, says: "I want to see college football." (1,753 dead) mississippifreepress.org/9913/mississip…
Read 9 tweets
30 Mar
This clip, starting at 11 seconds, where @CindyHydeSmith talks about entering politics as a woman & the "crusty old buzzards" who didn't want hear there, is the kind of human story I hoped she'd share with me when I begged her campaign for a sit-down interview in 2018. 1/
Both of her opponents that year, a Republican and a Democrat, sat & talked with me for hours both about issues and about who they were.

But Sen. Hyde-Smith's campaign didn't trust that she, our first woman senator, to withstand a prolonged interview with a journalist. 2/
So I never got that chance to do a sit-down interview with Sen. Hyde-Smith & let her share her ideas and her human side and stories.

The closest I ever got was her swearing on her daughter's life (while side-hugging her) that she'd never voted for Hillary Clinton. (Disputed) 3/
Read 6 tweets
30 Mar
NEW: For some, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith's claim that a new voting rights bill would "undermine" the 19th Amendment was absurd.

For Black Mississippians, it recalled a time when white feminists not only excluded Black women, but used racism for advantage. 1/
mississippifreepress.org/10745/an-insul…
“As a woman in Congress right now, I am the beneficiary of the women who fought for women to have the right to vote. This (bill) would undermine all of this," Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith said last week as she announced her opposition to #HR1. 2/
mississippifreepress.org/10745/an-insul…
“If we want to talk about suffragists, that’s part of why #HR1 is necessary. Because if you feel like this is going to take away what suffragists did, well, HR 1 aims to move past that bc it was only for white women..."
—Arekia Bennett, @MSVotes 3/
mississippifreepress.org/10745/an-insul…
Read 19 tweets

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