Lawmakers listen to speakers at the joint hearing on elections on August 28, 2024, at the State Capitol.
- In 47 states, early voting is possible in person. Only Mississippi, Alabama and New Hampshire do not have this procedure. Another 43 states allow initial online voter registration. This is not the case in Mississippi.
Mississippi lawmakers held a joint committee hearing on elections in the Magnolia State on Wednesday.
House Appropriations and Elections Committee Chairman State Rep. Noah Sanford (R) and Senate Elections Committee Chairman Jeremy England (R) agreed to hold the hearing toward the end of the 2024 session after the House failed to take up England’s early voting bill.
“Over the past year, we’ve started talking about the idea of in-person voting before the election and other things related to elections in Mississippi. When I talked to Rep. Sanford about it, if we don’t pass a bill, we’re definitely going to have a hearing on it,” England said. “So he’s a man of his word, and I appreciate him doing that.”
In addition to the MPs, representatives from the State Department and the Circuit Clerks Association, as well as election commissioners and non-partisan groups active in the electoral process at the national level, also attended the hearing.
In-person early voting
Samantha Buckley of Secure Democracy opened the day’s presentations. Secure Democracy is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to building trust in our elections and improving voter access across the United States.
Buckley explained to MPs that voting in person before the polls works the same way as voting on Election Day. Local election officials check the voter’s ID and the voter casts their vote at the precinct clerk’s office. The ballot is then secured and placed with the other ballots that will be counted on Election Day. It is not left in an envelope to be counted later, as is the case with postal voting.
“There is no pre-tabulation here,” Buckley said.
Rep. Dan Eubanks (R) asked about the chain of custody of ballots in early voting.
“The only thing I would be concerned about with early voting is if multiple precincts are connected to one machine and votes are counted at one polling station. How are those then divided up so that votes can be counted correctly in their correct precinct,” Eubanks said.
Buckley said the processes of the circuit clerk and counting machines are critical to ensuring security checks and a proper count.
She added that in-person voting ahead of time could reduce lines on election day and result in fewer absentee ballots, making for a smoother election process while maintaining the same security checks.
“So when you vote in person before the election, there will be the same security checks that there will be on Election Day. They will look at photo IDs. They will check the registration status to make sure there are no markings or flags on it,” Buckley said.
Senator England’s bill, which passed in his chamber by a vote of 44 to 8, would have allowed early voting 15 days before Election Day, excluding Sundays and ending the Saturday before the scheduled election. The measure would have eliminated in-person absentee voting, but mail-in voting would have remained available. Currently, voters in Mississippi can cast their ballots six weeks before Election Day.
Starting in July 2024, in-person early voting will be available in 47 states, with Mississippi, Alabama and New Hampshire being the only states that do not yet use the process. Buckley said it is not a new concept; there are proven practices in place.
Buckley released a November 2023 Arc Insights poll showing that 74 percent of voters support in-person early voting, with 65 percent of Republicans and 82 percent of Democrats expressing support.
Senator England asked about possible changes in election results in states that have adopted in-person voting before the election, such as Republican states becoming Democratic or vice versa. Buckley said that is generally not the case.
“I don’t think early voting is the cause of any potential political change. Rather, we are seeing a demographic shift in the population, and that can happen, but I wouldn’t say early voting is the cause of it,” Buckley added.
She said Secure Democracy found that rural voters were 25 percent more likely than other voters to have the opportunity to cast their ballots in person in advance.
Online voter registration
Trey Grayson, the former Republican secretary of state for Kentucky, also attended the hearing. He was part of the Secure Elections Project, a national nonprofit that works on election processes primarily in “red or purple states.” He spoke about online voter registration.
Mississippi does not currently allow first-time online voter registration. Grayson said states have found that online voter registration saves money, increases voter convenience and is more secure than the traditional method.
“Forty-three states have fully embraced it and allow both updating and initial registration,” Grayson said, noting that Mississippi allows online updating.
He said online registrations are significantly cheaper because voter registration does not require paper. Grayson said online registration costs about 3 cents to process, while paper processing costs over $4, which could save about $700,000 a year. Paper registration would still be an option.
Grayson said online registration will also reduce the number of data entry errors.
As for the demographics of online voter registration users, Grayson said the majority tend to be younger voters, as they are traditionally the first-time voters to register.
Lawmakers are expected to consider early voting and online voter registration legislation during the 2025 session.
You can watch the full joint election hearing here.
