Analysis: Mississippi early voting needs veto-proof support

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
December 27, 2020

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves is making clear, even before the start of the 2021 legislative session, that he opposes any big changes in the way the state conducts elections.

About 1.3 million Mississippi residents voted in the 2020 presidential race, and the vast majority cast their ballots on Election Day. Republican Secretary of State Michael Watson said the state issued about 248,000 absentee ballots. Some people voted absentee by mail, and some cast absentee ballots in-person at circuit clerk’s offices. Watson said absentee voting in 2020 was roughly double what it was during the 2016 presidential election.

In many places around Mississippi, people stood in long lines outside and inside precincts. The Republican governor said that he and his wife, Elee, stood in line more than an hour at a precinct near the Governor’s Mansion in downtown Jackson — and he said he was OK with that.

“I believe in the institution of Election Day, and I have said that from the beginning,” Reeves told reporters Dec. 14 at the Capitol, adding that he opposes expansion of mail-in voting.

Many states allow people to cast a ballot days or weeks in advance, at their convenience. That list includes Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee and Georgia. Efforts to enact early voting in Mississippi have hit a wall, so far.

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