Sun Herald
Petitioners gathered more than enough signatures to put a voter ID initiative on Mississippi’s November 2011 ballot that will include candidates for governor and other offices, the state’s top elections official said Monday. Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said his office had determined 131,678 signatures of registered voters were collected. That’s significantly more than the minimum 89,285 needed. Republican organizers, led by Sen. Joey Fillingane of Petal, spent about a year collecting signatures and submitted them in February.
The head of the Mississippi Republican Party said the group will handle an initiative to get voter identification on the ballot just as it would any other election campaign, by traveling the state to urge voters to support the issue. State GOP Chairman Brad White said he hopes to get the voter ID initiative on the ballot for November 2010. To do so would require some 100,000 signatures from certified voters in the state’s congressional districts by Oct. 1.