Thread by @ashtonpittman

READ THIS THREAD: On Tuesday, cancer patient Jonathan helped launch a Medicaid expansion ballot initiative: "(Many) days I feel pretty helpless. Today I feel pretty good—we have a chance..."

On Friday, the MS Supreme Court killed ALL ballot initiatives. 1/mississippifreepress.org/12117/medicaid…

“I have just learned I have another surgery coming up. Without insurance, I can’t afford any of this. At this point, I feel like I shouldn’t be worried about battling the treatment; I should be battling the cancer,” Jonathan said Tuesday. 2/
mississippifreepress.org/12117/medicaid…

Jonathan's hope: With a ballot initiative, MS would be able to bypass lawmakers & expand Medicaid to 200,000 working Mississippians who can't afford health care. @YesOn76MS began collecting signatures Tuesday.

On Friday, the court killed those plans. 3/ mississippifreepress.org/12117/medicaid…

Here's what happened: In November, 68% voted for Initiative 65, a ballot initiative creating a medical marijuana program.

Beyond MM, 65's success showed that Mississippi voters can make change thru democracy even when MS leaders ignore their wishes. 4/ mississippifreepress.org/6738/mississip…

It wasn't easy. From 2018-2019, volunteers (like parents of sick children) collected 228,000 signatures to put med marijuana on the ballot.

They should've needed under half as many signatures, but county officials rejected MANY. So they doubled it. 5/ jacksonfreepress.com/news/2018/oct/…

When voters overwhelmingly approved medical marijuana 2-1, the success gave MS activists hope they could use ballot initiatives to pass other policies voters want but that have little chance in #MSLeg, where a powerful few routinely kills popular bills. 6/
mississippifreepress.org/6738/mississip…

After the successful medical marijuana initiative, voting rights activists launched a campaign to create 10 days of early voting

MS currently has no early voting & perhaps the most limited absentee voting in the country. The idea: to expand democracy. 7/ mississippifreepress.org/11740/not-a-pa…

Like the Medicaid expansion campaign, early voting activists hoped to collect enough signatures to get it on the ballot for the 2022 elections.

For the first time in years, they had real hope of using democracy to overcome legislative stalemate. 8/ mississippifreepress.org/11740/not-a-pa…

But one person who wasn't happy with the medical marijuana vote was Mary Hawkins Butler, mayor of Madison, MS (historic white flight town) since the 80s.

She guards her zoning authority in a city that even required Walmart to be built with red brick.

She saw 65 as a threat. 9/

Madison's mayor said she didn't want "pot shops" (patients' medical marijuana dispensaries) in Madison.

In October, she said she was "looking at...what we could do regarding protecting our citizens, our schools, our plans and the future of Madison." 10/
google.com/amp/s/www.wapt…

Madison's mayor came up with a plan: To stop "pot shops" from coming to her city, she would challenge, not just initiative 65, but the legality of Mississippi's entire ballot initiative process at its core. 11/
apnews.com/article/2ec8c6…

When Mississippi created its ballot initiative process in 1992, the state had 5 congressional districts.

To get an issue on the ballot, petitioners would need to collect a certain number from each congressional district. 12/

The 1992 ballot initiate law says that each of the five congressional districts must contribute 1/5 of the required signatures to get an issue on the ballot.

So if you needed 100,000 signatures statewide, you'd need at least 20,000 in each district. 13/
ballotpedia.org/Article_XV,_Mi…

The ballot initiative law says the "signatures...from any congressional district shall not exceed 1/5 of the total required." The secretary of state must disregard excess from any one district.

It ensured all 5 districts had equal say in getting an issue on the ballot. 14/

Mississippi had boasted 5 congressional districts since 1855—before the Civil War. It probably seemed like it'd never change.

But after 2000 redistributing, Mississippi lost its 5th congressional district for a lack of population growth.

It's had 4 ever since. 15/

But even with only 4 congressional districts, Mississippi officials continued allowing ballot initiatives, reasoning that the spirit & intent of the law now meant petitioners must collect 1/4 of the required number of signatures from each of the 4 congressional districts. 16/

In 2011, conservative petitioners got two big items on the ballot via ballot initiatives:

One was initiative 27, a voter ID law. Voters approved it 62%-37%.

But voters rejected Initiative 26, the Personhood Amendment, 58-42 because it went too far in banning all abortions. 17/

Public education advocates & liberal policy groups tried to score a victory in 2015 with Initiative 42, requiring the Legislature to fully fund K-12.

It failed 52-48 after hostile lawmakers made voting on it a confusing 2-step process with an alternative "42A" option added. 18/

After medical marijuana advocates overcame the hurdle of collecting enough sigs to get Initiative 65 on the ballot, legislators again tried to turn it into a confusing two-step process with a 65A alternate that would allow them to retain control.

This time, it didn't work. 19/

On the first part of the Initiative 65/medical marijuana ballot, 68% voted yes.

The 2nd part asked voters to choose either 65 (the program petitioners had put on the ballot) or 65A (lawmakers' alternative which didn't even require implementation).

65 won 74%-26%. 20/

65 organizers overcame A LOT.

They collected 2x the required signatures to overcome local officials throwing out/not sending batches to SOS.

They educated voters to overcome #MSLeg's confusing two-step trick.

Yet a single mayor got the Supreme Court to kill it anyway. 21/

For 20 years, none challenged the ballot initiative process's legality after MS lost its 5th district.

But once a coalition of conservatives, libertarians & liberals successfully got medical marijuana passed, a mayor from a historic white flight suburb decided it was time. 22/

A 6-3 majority of the MS Supreme Court ruled Friday that Initiative 65 was illegal.

Why? Bc each of the 4 US House districts had provided more than 1/5 of all required signatures.

It could could only be legal, they ruled, if petitioners had defied mathematical possibility. 23/

MS Supreme Court Majority: "Whether with intent, by oversight, or for some other reason, the drafters of section 273(3) wrote a ballot-initiative process that cannot work in a world where Mississippi has fewer than 5 representatives in Congress." 24/
mississippifreepress.org/12260/in-blow-…

3 MS Supreme Court justices, including a liberal & 2 conservatives, dissented:

“The majority...(steps) completely outside of MS law to employ an interpretation that not only amends but judicially kills Mississippi’s citizen initiative process." 25/mississippifreepress.org/12260/in-blow-…

The Mississippi State Department of Health has spent months getting ready for the medical marijuana program to launch in August.

Businesses were getting ready to open up to provide, produce and dispense medical marijuana.

Now, that's over. 26/ google.com/amp/s/www.wlbt…

But the Supreme Court's ruling has far more wide-reaching effects than medical marijuana.

MS leaders' refusal to expand Medicaid (which polls show 60% of voters support) has pushed 50% of the states' rural hospitals to the brink of financial collapse. 27/ mississippifreepress.org/12117/medicaid…

Gov. Tate Reeves has made clear he will not support Medicaid expansion (which he misleadingly calls "Obamacare expansion") no matter what.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann supports it, but House Speaker Gunn (an ALEC board member) doesn't seem interested. 28/ mississippifreepress.org/12117/medicaid…

Mississippi health leaders, health workers, activists and patients believed voters could bypass hostile politicians & approve Medicaid expansion to save rural hospitals + care for 200,000 working Mississippians with the @YesOn76MS ballot initiative. 29/ mississippifreepress.org/12117/medicaid…

Now that option is gone bc even health care leaders can't do the impossible and collect signatures from a magical, non-existent 5th congressional district.

The same goes for early voting advocates who hoped to expand democracy.

Instead, it shrank. 30/ mississippifreepress.org/11740/not-a-pa…

Are there ways to fix this? Some, yes.

-the ruling could be challenged in federal court, though the outcome is dubious

-the Legislature could fix the wording in the ballot initiative law (lawmakers in both parties have tried; #MSLeg R & D leaders let those bills die). 31/

Here's a radical idea: The U.S. Congress could boost the number of U.S. House representatives from 435.

In 1910, each of the 435 members represented 209,447 constituents.

Today, each represents 747,000.

Boosting it could get MS back to 5 districts. 32/ google.com/amp/s/www.pewr…

You might say, why doesn't MS just elect more lawmakers who reflect their views on issues?

Even when lawmakers represent constituents' views, leaders in the Legislature (like House Speaker Gunn, who is from Madison) squash popular bills all the time. 33/

Second, Mississippi's legislative districts are heavily gerrymandered. If a district isn't representative, it's on purpose.

Senate District 22 is a good example.

From 2005-2019, that majority Black district kept electing a white GOP senator. Why? 34/ jacksonfreepress.com/news/2019/mar/…

Most of District 22 is in the MS Delta, which is majority Black and one of the poorest regions in the country.

But MS Legislature extended it across over 100 miles & across 6 counties—to also include some of the wealthiest, whitest parts of the state. 35/jacksonfreepress.com/news/2019/mar/…

In Mississippi, the Black poverty rate is 31%. The white poverty rate is 12%.

But the Legislature designed Senate District 22 to include Black residents who had a 41% poverty rate & white Madison County residents with a less than 9% poverty rate. 36/ jacksonfreepress.com/news/2019/mar/…

That created a district comprised of white voters who are significantly wealthier than the average white Mississippian, and black voters who are significantly poorer than the average black Mississippian.

Poverty is associated with lower voting rates. 37/ jacksonfreepress.com/news/2019/mar/…

Education rates are also lower than average among Black voters in the Delta, where schools are vastly underfunded and teachers are in short supply.

Generally, voter-turnout rates are the lowest among the poor and those with less education. 38/ theguardian.com/society/2017/m…

In District 22, a poorer-than-average Black electorate combined with the wealthier-than-average white electorate resulted in a large gap in turnout, with white turnout 10.2 points higher than black turnout. 39/
jacksonfreepress.com/news/2019/mar/…

In federal court, Boston University political scientist Maxwell Palmer testified that District 22 would need a 62-percent black voting-age population in order for African Americans to have a "realistic opportunity" to elect their candidate of choice. 40/ jacksonfreepress.com/news/2019/mar/…

In 2019, U.S. District Court Judge Carlton W. Reeves, an Obama appointee, ruled that Senate District 22 was an illegal racial gerrymander. (If you haven't noticed, courts matter).

He ordered the Mississippi Legislature to redraw Senate District 22. 41/ jacksonfreepress.com/news/2019/mar/…

Judge Reeves said MS could be expected to have about 30 white & 20 non-white senators based on demography:

"There are only 15 majority-minority Senate Districts, & the Senate has never had more than 13 (Black) members...Mississippi's Senate is much whiter than Mississippi." 42/

After Judge Reeves' ruling, the Legislature redrew Senate District 22 from a 51% Black district to a 57% Black district.

After that, Sen. Joseph Thomas, a Black Democrat who held the seat in the early 2000s, beat white Republican Hayes Dent 52-48. 43/ jacksonfreepress.com/news/2019/nov/…

While Senate District 22's racial gerrymandering was odious enough to merit federal court intervention, gerrymandering is a problem statewide.

White Mississippians make up 56% of the state population, but almost 70% of the overall Legislature. 44/ jacksonfreepress.com/news/2019/nov/…

Consider the Mississippi Supreme Court—whose justices are elected.

MS is almost 40% Black. And in recent elections, 41% of MS voted for a Democrat for president; 46% voted for a Dem US senator; 47% for a Dem governor.

Yet the Supreme Court is 8-1 white & 7-2 conservative. 45/

Many Mississippians cannot vote, however. Around 11% of the adult population is permanently barred from voting due to past felony offenses that they've served time for.

Among Mississippi's Black voters? 16% (130,000) are permanently disenfranchised. 46/ sentencingproject.org/wp-content/upl…

Mississippi's felony voter law was implemented in the state's 1890 Constitution.

Drafters of that Constitution said their goal was to ensure "a government for the people" meant "the Anglo-Saxon people" and "to secure the supremacy of the white race." 47/
mississippifreepress.org/11705/systemic…

Gov. James K. Vardaman, an 1890 Constitution drafter: “Mississippi’s constitutional convention of 1890 was held for no other purpose than to eliminate the n-ger from politics. Not the ‘ignorant & vicious'...but the n-gger.” 48/
mississippifreepress.org/11705/systemic…

MS voting habits would change MOST if everyone voted, a 2019 Economist analysis found.

2016 Prez margin: GOP +215k
2018 Senate Margin: GOP +68k
2019 Gov Margin: GOP +45K

And 235k are forever barred from voting.

Below: What everyone voting in 2016 could've looked like.
49/

And while Mississippi is an almost 40% Black state, the House districts are safely gerrymandering into 3 majority white, overwhelmingly safe GOP districts + 1 majority Black, overwhelmingly Democratic district.

How safe do they all feel? Let's see... 50/

Last month, the US House, including 106 Republicans, voted to allow marijuana businesses to access banking services.

All 3 MS Republicans voted against the bill, fearing no repercussions—even after Mississippians voted FOR medical marijuana 68%-32%. 51/

https://twitter.com/jallen1985/status/1394038378224668672

So when people say, "Well, Mississippi deserves their misery bc they do it to themselves"—You don't know what you're talking about!

People here fight & fight & fight to have a democracy & for their voice to matter—with everything stacked against them. 52/ mississippifreepress.org/11705/systemic…

The main issue isn't medical marijuana. Or Medicaid expansion. Or early voting itself.

It's about democracy. And that's something the powerful few in this state have long sought, and successfully so, to keep the people from having full access to. 53/ mississippifreepress.org/11705/systemic…

If you're not from Mississippi and want to offer your opinions on MS, do it with this knowledge & this info in hand. Save this thread. Re-read it. RT it. Print it out. Keep it in your pocket.

People here want MS to be better. They need HELP, not more mocking and derision. 54/

To be frank, my belief that better is possible is why I'm a journalist. It's why I work for the Mississippi Free Press, a non-profit that relies on support from (many amazing) small donors.

Being a MS journalist is far from a get-rich quick scheme. 55/ mfp.ms

I got a journalism degree in 2014. But between the low wages at most local newspapers (you're doing well if you start at $25k) and knowing I couldn't do the journalism I know this state needs at most newspapers, I decided it wasn't worth it. 56/

So in 2014, I started pursuing an accounting degree, knowing I'd hate the work but that I could make a decent living. I later realized that was silly, and that I at least like computers and computer coding, so I started pursing a computer science degree. 57/

Jackson Free Press editor Donna Ladd needed a freelancer to do some reporting for the Jackson Free Press in mid-2018, and I agreed (I needed some extra money while I was working on that computer science degree).

This was my first report for JFP. 58/ jacksonfreepress.com/news/2018/jun/…

With Donna Ladd as my editor, I realized that I *could* do the kind of reporting in Mississippi that I believed in and felt this state needed. Yeah, I probably wouldn't get a six-figure computer science job—but I could do work I really believed in. 59/

Now, I'm the senior reporter for the Mississippi Free Press, which editor Donna Ladd co-founded with publisher Kimberly Griffin as a "truth-to-power" news source that goes "beyond partisanship."

I get to do the kind of work I once gave up on ever having the chance to do. 60/

Candidly, that's why it pisses me off when I report on what's happening here & my mentions get flooded with, "Well, it IS Mississippi," or, "They get what they deserve."

No, we really, really, really don't. Beyond any one issue or view, Mississippians deserve so much better. 61/

My goal isn't to tell you what to think, but it's obvious that I really believe in democracy & think it's important to defend and elevate it.

The history of this state is rife with a powerful few beating every last shred of hope out of the people here. Don't help them. 62/

I do want you to care about Mississippi. It's the only way you can truly care about America. You believe in the United States, all the states, or you don't.

And we aren't all just one thing—that awful stereotype we all know. 62/
mississippifreepress.org/3710/you-white…

Mississippi is this multi-racial group of kids in a historic white-flight suburban high school defying authority and risking their class privileges to walk out of class and fight back against racism in Oak Grove. 63/
mississippifreepress.org/5625/good-trou…

Mississippi is peolpe like Rev. Brandiilyne Magnum-Dear, who, after being run out of her own church for being gay, started an LGBT-inclusive church with her wife whose members include LGBT people exiled from their families. She also performed MS's first legal gay marriage. 64/

Mississippi is people like Fannie Lou Hamer who, aside from being "sick & tired of being sick & tired," was sick of the DNC bowing to segregationist Dixiecrats, and started the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and demanded representation at the 1964 DNC. 65/

Mississippi is people like Tamiko Smith who cares for her ailing husband, Otis—a man whose health was threatened bc, despite being part of the richest nation on earth, residents of Mississippi's capital city, Jackson, struggle for reliable water access. 66/mississippifreepress.org/10153/under-th…

Mississippi is people like Jonathan Smith, a working father who would like to see his four children grow up—but whose life is threatened both by cancer and by his struggle to afford necessary treatments and surgeries in the absence of health care. 67/ mississippifreepress.org/12117/medicaid…

I could go on forever about the many wonderful humans both past and present that "Mississippi" encompasses—and I'd still miss a few.

The point is, their lives matter. They aren't some 2D stereotype. And when you just put down on or dismiss MS, you're doing it to them, too. 68/

A lot of bad things happen to the people of this state. That doesn't mean that the people of this state are bad.

The people here certainly haven't always had the kind of leadership or representation they needed. That doesn't mean they don't deserve it. 69/

No matter how many bad things you've heard about Mississippi, you need to understand that the people here don't deserve all the bad things that happen to them. They deserve far better.

The students at Oak Grove High School deserve better. 70/
mississippifreepress.org/5625/good-trou…

How can the rest of the country help? How can the national media help? Start by caring about Mississippi—even if we aren't a swing state. 71/

*Mangum-Dear

And, uh, *people

For those wanting to know about how to support our work at MFP, this is the link.

Our goal isn't to support any one party or agenda. It's about democracy & elevating the voices of the people of this state (not giving them voices—they already have those):formississippi.networkforgood.com/projects/87723…

Speaker Gunn is from *CLINTON, not Madison. Little bit of an OD on Madison in this thread.

Quick correction: Speaker Gunn is from CLINTON, not Madison. This thread is too Madison heavy.

https://twitter.com/ashtonpittman/status/1394051952196075522

BIG: Caleb Bedillion reports that Republican MS House Speaker Philip Gunn (of Clinton) not only supports restoring the ballot initiative process, but wants Gov. Reeves to call a special session to fix it.

https://twitter.com/calebbedillion/status/1394375063173050370