Three civil-rights groups are accusing Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson of violating Mississippi’s election code with his Dec. 4 cutoff for voters to cure affidavit ballots and circuit clerks to receive absentee ballots for the Nov. 26 judicial runoff elections.
All state, county and city offices in Mississippi were closed on Thursday, Nov. 28, and Friday, Nov. 29, for the Thanksgiving holiday per Gov. Tate Reeves’ proclamation, meaning Dec. 4 was four business days after the Nov. 26 runoff. Mississippi law says that the absentee and affidavit ballot deadline is five business days after the election and that a state holiday is not a business day. Thus, the deadline should have been Dec. 5, civil-rights groups say.
The Legal Defense Fund, Disability Rights Mississippi and the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP said in the letter that Watson’s decision “undermines the right of voters to access the ballot box in a free and fair manner” because he changed the date without notifying voters and counted Friday, Nov. 29, as a business day.
Election officials still have not determined the final result of the Mississippi Supreme Court District 1 runoff, in which Republican Mississippi Sen. Jenifer Branning leads incumbent moderate Justice Jim Kitchens by 1,449 votes with 99% of ballots counted.
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“Your decision shortens the time voters have to ensure their votes are counted with no notice to voters about this last-minute change—an especially egregious action given the timing around Thanksgiving, a period when many individuals are traveling or otherwise unable to access their Circuit Clerk’s office,” the groups’ members wrote on Dec. 4.
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