JACKSON, Miss.–If you plan to exercise your civic duty and vote in the June primary, and you haven’t registered to vote, Saturday is the last day. You can register at your county’s circuit clerk’s office.
Your circuit clerk’s office will be open until noon to take last-minute voter sign-ups.
And, you will have to have a valid ID to vote for the first time in Mississippi.
Sec. of State Delbert Hosemann said that both Democrats and Republicans have been educating voters and making sure they have valid picture IDs for the June 3 vote.
“And then we have the faith-based community. We have contacts with over a thousand churches in Mississippi. The Baptist Register sent out over 60,000 letters making sure people have and ID,” he said.
He said there is no reason you should not be able to get an ID easily.
“There’s a camera in every circuit clerk’s office. We’ll get a free verification of your birth certificate. We’ll give you free transportation there through MDOT.”
He said there could still be a federal challenge to the state’s voter ID law, which went into effect after last year’s Supreme Court ruling that the federal government, namely the Justice Dept., could not force state’s to have federal pre-clearance for voter ID. Mississippi passed voter ID at the polls and through the legislature.
“There could be, but quite frankly, we’ve started voting now. Our military and oversees voters started last Saturday. Quite frankly it becomes very difficult to stop an election for Unites States senator and Congress a few days before hand and the process has started.”
Mississippi’s voter ID law recently won two national awards. Hosemann said you can come to his office to see them.
The Miss. NAACP and other organizations have said black voters were not well-represented in the election that passed voter ID, and the group stands adamantly against it.
