For the second year in a row, the two chairmen of the legislative elections committees in the Mississippi Legislature are not on the same page when it comes to early voting.
The Senate chairman, Jeremy England, is once again championing the idea of no-excuse, in-person early voting, which is already allowed in 47 states. It would not only make it easier for people to vote before Election Day but to do it in such a way that it reduces the odds of election fraud.
The House chairman, Noah Sanford, has other ideas. Last year, he killed England’s bill to allow in-person early voting, saying the proposal needed more discussion. That discussion subsequently was held, and nothing from those hearings suggested that in-person early voting is a bad idea, other than some of the circuit clerks in the state don’t want to be bothered implementing it.
This year, Sanford has amended England’s bill in a way that would actually increase the odds of voter fraud — precisely the alleged risk that some uninformed or intentionally misleading politicians, such as Gov. Tate Reeves, give for opposing in-person early voting. Instead of in-person early voting, Sanford’s amendment proposes to greatly expand the reasons voters can give for voting by absentee ballot. He would add the excuses of anticipating being at work or being the caretaker for a child, disabled person or senior citizen. Virtually anyone with a job or child could ask to vote by absentee.
If this amendment were to pass, it would almost certainly increase the volume of absentee ballots. That would be bad for election integrity, since absentee ballots are the primary means by which election fraud is perpetrated in Mississippi. Because absentee ballots mostly operate on an honor system, those who are inclined to be dishonorable gravitate toward using them as a way to stuff the ballot box, casting votes in the names of people who are registered but are unlikely to turn out on Election Day because they are apathetic, have moved or have died.
Absentee ballots are also responsible for why very close elections are often thrown out and ordered by judges to be conducted again. The byzantine rules that govern the casting of absentee ballots result in frequent technical violations that can invalidate those ballots when challenged in court.
Rather than encourage more absentee balloting, Mississippi should do the opposite and provide an alternative that is cleaner and less mistake-prone. That’s what in-person early voting would be.
No longer would voters have to provide a reason to vote early, which would cut down on the amount of lying that goes on with requests for absentee ballots. It would also reduce the amount of fraud, since in-person voting before Election Day would operate just like in-person voting on Election Day. Voters would have to provide photo identification when they show up at the courthouse to cast an early ballot. One other benefit is that shifting absentee ballot voters to in-person early voters would also speed up the tabulation of election returns.
The Senate has the right idea, the House the wrong one. If the House can’t be convinced, though, to adopt the Senate proposal, it would be better for the Legislature to again do nothing. Better to leave things as they are, however behind the times, than to make matters worse.
