Legislature approves 'voter purge' process, but blocks online voter registration

Right now, we’ve gotten a break from bitter floor debates and a revolving door of committee meetings because most bills are either in conference committees or at the governor’s desk for consideration.

Conference committees are when three House members and three senators hash out the final details of a bill on which the chambers disagree.

One of the things that will be discussed in a conference committee is House Bill 1310, which, among other things, would create a process for county elections officials to remove voters who have not voted in an election in four years from elections rolls.

The bill says local election commissioners will send a postcard to registered voters who do not cast a ballot in any local, state or federal election during a two-year period that includes two federal elections — a presidential election and a midterm congressional election.

If voters fail to confirm their address within another two-years of receiving the postcard, or if they fail to vote during that same time, the county would remove their name from the rolls.

Both chambers have passed some version of this bill, so an agreement will likely be reached soon.

But while the Legislature seems poised to approve a process to remove people more quickly from the voter rolls, it’s also rejected a proposal to put them onto the rolls more easily.

Earlier this year, it looked like the stars would align for an online voter registration bill to get serious debate at the Capitol.

Republican Sen. Kevin Blackwell of Southaven introduced a bill that would allow citizens to register to vote online. Republican Secretary of State Michael Watson also supported the general intent of the legislation.

But that bill died in the Senate Elections Committee without debate or a vote.

Usually when a Republican legislator and a Republican statewide official endorse a policy, it can be a good indicator it will get some traction during the legislative session.

But because committee chairmen in the Capitol have the power to set their own legislative agendas, the bill died in committee.

Senate Elections Committee Chairman Jeff Tate, R-Meridian, said he killed the online registration bill because he wants most election-related activities to be conducted in person at polling precincts or at local circuit clerks’ offices.

“That may be too old school for some, but that’s just where I am,” Tate told the Daily Journal. “I think the greater chance you have for moving online, the more potential you have for voter fraud or something not being quite right.”

Current state law does not allow for someone to register to vote using the internet. But a new voter can download Mississippi’s mail-in voter registration form online, fill it out and mail it to a county circuit clerk’s office.

If voters move to a new address in the state, they can also change their voting location online.

“While people say they’re kind of nervous about it, we basically have it now because you can do that, print your paper out, send it in and register,” Watson told senators in a January committee meeting. “And then you can change information online now. So it’s really not that big of a step.”

Watson, the statewide official who administers Mississippi’s elections, supports the voter purge bill, but he’s publicly said he’s fine with online voter registration because it would also help accomplish the very thing Tate is wanting to accomplish with his voter purge bill: cleaning up voter rolls.

“I think it saves money in the long run. I think it’s smart,” Watson said. “Future generations are going on the internet. It’s a cleaner process, so you’re going to have cleaner voter rolls.”

Statewide officials can leverage the power of their office to influence public opinion, but, other than the governor and lieutenant governor, they have no actual power over legislation.

Because of the political impasse between the state’s elections administrator and the Senate Elections chairman, Mississippi could soon have a quicker way to remove people from voter rolls and no faster way to register to vote.

Quote of the Week

The quote of the week for this edition comes from House Speaker Pro Tempore Jason White, R-West, talking to the Daily Journal about his views of the Capitol before he ran for the Legislature.

“When I first thought about getting into this, folks said, ‘You won’t like the Legislature. It’s rough and tumble down there.’ And I told them I was on the board of aldermen in West, where my mother-in-law was the mayor."

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