Thread by @jallen1985

THREAD: This victimhood narrative from Republican personalities keeps popping up, but the GOP is responsible for its own reputation—and Mississippi Republicans are fully capable to earn a pro-voter reputation if that is the reputation they want. 1/

https://twitter.com/LucienSmith/status/1400114630383525895

For example, if Republicans want to become more popular among college-educated voters, a smart way to do it would be to make voting easier for college students.

As fmr. Sen. @SallyDoty explained in 2016, voting is hard for MS college voters. 2/

Doty's bill to allow college registrars to witness their own students' voting paperwork—which the MS College Republicans supported—died in the House in 2016, but there's nothing stopping the #MSleg from taking it up again now. 3/

https://twitter.com/jallen1985/status/1360794717164892165

Trying to make college voting easier, however, no longer occurs in the MS Senate.

Instead, we now have Lt. Gov. @DelbertHosemann, who as SOS convened bipartisan study groups to consider election reforms—complete w/ press conferences & everything. How times have changed! 4/

Does Hosemann's elections committee now consider election reforms out in the open the way his study groups did?

No! Hosemann's Senate conducts out of hearings to consider major legislative items—taxes, Medicaid, equal pay, COVID-19, etc.—but not elections legislation. 5/

For example, Hosemann's elections committee did not hear from any witnesses before passing a "use it or lose it" voter purge bill this year (a) despite Hosemann's repeated prior statements of confidence in our current system of voter purging... 6/

...(b) with no explanation why the "use it or lose it" bill would perform any better in Mississippi than in Ohio, where both Republicans and Democrats found its performance to be disastrous... 7/

https://twitter.com/ACLU_MS/status/1357781957703311362

...and (c) with no consideration of the performance of "use it or lose it" purges in Mississippi, in the handful of counties that were required to implement similar purging procedures in recent years under federal consent decrees. 8/

https://twitter.com/jallen1985/status/1358911019876290562

But since Hosemann is happy to steamroll major elections bills through, surely the Senate passed no-excuse in-person early voting—an idea Hosemann vocally and visibly supported as SOS—right?

Again, no. Early voting can't get out of committee... 9/
sunherald.com/news/politics-…

...which brings me to the House, where early voting also can't get out of committee—an odd circumstance, considering that a near-unanimous House inc. Speaker @PhilipGunnMS passed early voting in both 2016 and 2017. billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2016/pdf/histo… billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2017/pdf/histo… 10/

Well, huh. That's odd! How about online voter registration? A near-unanimous House inc. Gunn passed that in both 2017 and 2017 also. billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2016/pdf/histo… billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/2017/pdf/histo…

Can that get out of committee? No! Why not? Who knows?! 11/

Republicans should take responsibility for their own reputation. If Republicans in Mississippi believe Democrats incorrectly describe the GOP as suppressing voters, they can call Hosemann & Gunn and ask them to pass some pro-voter legislation. 12/

https://twitter.com/LucienSmith/status/1400114632753356803