Mississippi's Republican Secretary of State, Delbert Hoseman, is trying to keep up with the Republican party line of frothing about "voting fraud" in order to try to justify additional restrictions on access to voting. Today's Tupelo, Mississippi Daily Journal quotes Secretary of State Delbert Hoseman as saying that he wants legislation that will give election commissioners two years to do a purge of the voting rolls. If they don't get it done in two years, his proposal would then allow the secretary of state to take over the county's rolls, purge them, and turn them back over to the county.
Hoseman's proposal about purging the rolls raises more questions than it answers. I will say this: I sigh with relief that the voting rights act preclearance of any Hoseman-originating mischief will be from a Justice Department we can depend upon.
He's also demanding that to get early voting, the state needs to pass a voter ID requirement. The Daily Journal article notes how far behind Mississippi falls on early voting and on liberality of absentee voting.
The state legislature's House elections chairman and Democrat Tommy Reynolds (who we can also depend upon to help protect us from Sec. of State Hoseman) doesn't see how the two could be connected:
House Apportionment and Elections Committee Chairman Tommy Reynolds, D-Water Valley, said he also supports early voting. He said he has observed the process in both Tennessee and Arkansas, and believes it works.
But Reynolds said early voting should not be tied to an identification requirement.
"Those are separate issues," he said. "You can find states that have both, but some states have one without the other."
I'm with Rep. Reynolds on this one.