Elections Committee Chairman Noah Sanford has successfully pushed some House members to scrap a Senate proposal to establish early voting in Mississippi and expand the state’s absentee voting program instead.
Sanford, a Republican from Collins, last week got the committee to adopt a plan clarifying voters who anticipate their employers might require them to work on Election Day and adding that people who care for children or disabled adults can vote by absentee.
“I’m the poster child for this,” Sanford said. “I’ve got a 5-year-old, a 2-year-old and a 9-month-old. I can promise you, you don’t want me bringing them into the polling place. They’d be knocking something over, and it would be a bad experience for all of us.”
The plan passed the Elections Committee with no audible opposition, and it can now go before the full House for consideration.
Sanford’s proposal also establishes an early voting task force, although Sanford held a hearing over the summer to study the issue. It also allows election workers to process absentee ballot forms leading to Election Day.
To vote by absentee, a voter must meet one of around a dozen legal excuses, such as temporarily living outside of their county or being over 65. Mississippi law doesn’t allow people to vote by absentee purely out of convenience or choice.
The Senate passed a proposal, authored by Republican Sen. Jeremy Englad of Vancleave, that would have established 15 days of no-excuse, in-person early voting and required voters to present a valid photo ID to an elections worker.
Sanford told committee members that the Senate proposal does not have enough support from House members needed for it to pass. If the House passes Sanford’s proposal, it would return it to the Senate for consideration.
Mississippi is one of only three states that do not have no-excuse early voting or no-excuse absentee voting.
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