ABSENTEE BALLOTING TO BEGIN AS SCHEDULED
There will be no delay in the availability of absentee ballots in Tallahatchie County, Circuit Clerk Daphane Neal said Friday morning.
Three days earlier, Neal had said that the appeal of a federal court ruling in a redistricting case over state Senate District 22 was holding up the release of sample ballots and might delay the start of absentee voting in the county. State Senate District 13, which includes portions of Tallahatchie County, adjoins District 22 and might also be impacted by the eventual ruling.
However, Neal said she had been directed Friday to make the ballots available.
A spokesperson for the secretary of state’s office said Friday that delaying the start of absentee voting was never the intention and that there were no instructions from that office to do so.
“This office has consistently told county election officials, who run elections in Mississippi, the law requires absentee ballots for military and overseas voters to be released Saturday, June 22, and absentee voting to begin on Monday, June 24. In counties impacted by Senate District 22 and 13, we asked circuit clerks to delay printing absentee ballots until today, Friday, June 21, in the event the court ruled. This has no impact on the beginning of absentee voting in these counties or any other county in Mississippi,” Leah Rupp Smith, assistant secretary of state of communications, explained in an email early Friday afternoon.
“Any information to the contrary, including information on social media, is unequivocally false,” Smith added, encouraging anyone having a question about absentee voting in Mississippi to call the secretary of state’s office at 601-576-2550.
The original story, as printed in the June 20 Sun-Sentinel, is below.
Until a ruling is issued in a federal appeals court case over the state’s redistricting of Mississippi Senate District 22, voters in Tallahatchie County will be unable to cast an absentee ballot or to even obtain a sample ballot for the Aug. 6 primary election, Circuit Clerk Daphane Neal announced Tuesday afternoon.
State Senate District 13, which includes portions of Tallahatchie County, adjoins District 22 and might also be impacted by the ruling, thus causing the holdup.
According to the 2019 elections calendar issued by the Mississippi secretary of state’s office, a sample ballot was to be made available by June 17 and absentee ballots are to be ready by June 24.
However, the first date has passed and the second is just days away, and neither election document can be distributed until the redistricting suit is resolved.
Neal said one person has requested a sample ballot and had to be turned away, but with a full explanation.
“This is beyond our control, and we regret any inconvenience,” noted Neal. “We’re just waiting for the federal court to make a ruling on this.”
Neal said circuit clerks’ offices in eight counties impacted by the case — Bolivar, Humphreys, Madison, Sharkey, Sunflower, Tallahatchie, Washington and Yazoo — are in the same holding pattern.
The secretary of state’s office has directed clerks in these counties to not generate ballot styles or issue any ballots until they are notified, noted Neal.
“We’re sitting on ready,” she added. “As soon as we get an OK from the secretary of state’s office, we’ll get them out as soon as possible.”
Current legislative district lines were approved by the Legislature in 2012, but a lawsuit filed in federal court challenged the manner in which the boundaries of Senate District 22 had been set.
In February, U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves issued an order striking down the map for District 22, saying it constituted a violation of the Voting Rights Act by denying racial minorities in the district “an equal opportunity to participate in the political processes and to elect candidates of their choice.”
Reeves’ decision was appealed, but in March a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court ruling and ordered the state to redraw the gerrymandered 102-mile-long state Senate District 22.
Gov. Phil Bryant and Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann appealed, asking that the full 5th Circuit hear the case. Oral arguments were conducted last week before another three-judge panel, and it is their decision that is being awaited.
In other election news:
» Neal said voters should remember that 5 p.m. on Monday, July 8, is the deadline for registering to vote in the Aug. 6 election.
Her offices in Charleston and Sumner will be open from 8 a.m. until noon on Saturday, July 6, to accommodate voter registration.
» Monday, July 29, at 5 p.m. is the voter registration deadline for anyone wishing to cast a ballot in the Aug. 27 primary runoff elections.
» Noon on Saturday, Aug. 3, is the deadline for voters to cast an absentee ballot in person at the circuit clerk’s office. Neal’s offices will be open from 8 a.m. until noon on Saturday, July 27, as well as Aug. 3, to facilitate in-person absentee voting.
» Absentee ballots returned by mail must be received in the circuit clerk’s office by 5 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 5.
