Governor Phil Bryant has named the month of September as being Voter Registration month.
The proclamation coincides with the unveiling of a new website created by the Secretary of State’s office to allow Mississippi’s voters to verify their registration online.
“There is nothing that we work harder at,” said Governor Phil Bryant. “There is nothing that is more important, there is nothing that more have sacrificed for than the simple but profound right to vote in this country.”
To verify voter registration, the website requires users to enter their name and last four digits of their social security number. They are then asked to verify their full name and address.
Users can also find out their polling place by inputting their address into the system.
The new website also allows Mississippi’s registered voters to change their address online.
“The Legislature did a great thing this year, they allow you to change your address on the internet,” said Delbert Hosemann, Secretary of State. “You can sit at your kitchen table tonight and if you have moved your address, to a new location, or moved to a new county, you can change your address right at home. We try so hard to get people to vote, they go to cast their ballots, then they can’t cast their ballot or it doesn’t count, even worse. Now we can show you how to register to vote, we can send you to the right place, and if you’ve moved, we can change your address all on the internet.”
Hosemann said that while the website does not allow Mississippian’s to register to vote, it does tell them the process of how to register to vote.
Hosemann praised their IT department which helped with the website saying that every country in the world has looked at the Mississippi Secretary of State’s website because of the leadership that they have shown in voting.
“We have gotten the highest rankings from the Homeland Security office about how our encrypted system protects our voters here, as well as, their personal information,” said Hosemann.
However, Hosemann said they would not be registering people to vote anytime soon.
“I am leery,” said Hosemann. “I have seen too many attempts to get into our state wide election management system. During the last election, we had as many as 2,000 in a month that tried to penetrate the statewide election management system. Of those 2,000 our IT people tell us that somewhere around 200 were very active attempts to get into your financial information.”
Governor Bryant said he agreed with Hosemann on trying to keep Mississippian’s private information as safe as possible.
“I think the more that we use information technology to allow people to register to vote, or even vote, there is a greater chance that you will have of someone being able to get into that system and manipulate those votes,” said Bryant. “I wish there was a system, and I think in the future that there may be, where we could say without hesitation or concern that people would be able to register online.”
