Mississippi
The Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation says it will deliver more than 118,000 certified signatures of registered voters to the secretary of state’s office Thursday in hopes of forcing a statewide vote on eminent domain. The measure is designed to let voters decide on a proposal to prevent the taking of private property to give to private developers. Opponents warn it could stifle some economic projects.
A lawsuit filed in state court seeks to block a Mississippi “personhood” initiative that would define life as beginning at conception. The proposed state constitutional amendment, pushed by people who want to end abortion, is scheduled on the ballot in November 2011. That’s the same time voters choose a governor, legislators and many other officials.
Two Republican state representatives say voters in Mississippi should have a say whether health insurance should be required in the magnolia state. The two will propose a ballot initiative, which is in direct response to the federal health care reform law. Representatives Alex Monsour of Vicksburg and Steven Palazzo of Biloxi filed a proposed initiative Tuesday with the Secretary of State’s office.
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 push for personhood amendments — designed to protect life from its biological beginning — continues with record-breaking support. Most petition drives involve signatures submitted in Colorado for a ballot position, but Keith Mason of Personhood USA was on hand in Mississippi. “The requirement to get on the ballot is 89,000 certified signatures, and out of the 130,000 that we turned in, 105,000 were certified,” he reports.
The Voter Identification petition, or, Initiative Measure #27, seeking to amend the State Constitution to require voters to submit a government issued photo identification before being allowed to vote, has been stamped received by Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann Thursday, February 11, 2010.
Mississippi’s Voter ID petition drive is moving forward and has acquired the numbers needed to continue the process to place the initiative on the state wide ballot. The petition drive had to capture 90,000 signatures divided between the five old congressional districts. According to sources close to the effort, over 22,000 signatures have been compiled in the First, Second, and Third Congressional Districts. The Fourth District has just over 20,000 signatures and the old Fifth District has over 21,000.
Alabama and Mississippi are among 11 states getting a grade of “F” on the first annual report card by the Citizens in Charge Foundation, a Virginia-based group that supports voters’ ability to change the law through statewide ballot initiatives and referendums. Out of a possible 11 points, for example, Alabama got only one on the grounds that some cities allow residents the right to local “initiative and referendum.”
An anti-abortion group that wants life defined in Mississippi as beginning at fertilization said it intends file a federal lawsuit today to protect a yearlong effort to get the measure on a statewide ballot.
Most residents of Mississippi probably don’t think twice about how a proposed law makes its way to the ballot during statewide elections. With the voter identification initiative #27 set to go on the ballots in 2011, Dave Clarke of Clarke, Bradley and Baker explained the measure and how the process works to get initiatives onto the ballot during the Greenville Kiwanis Club luncheon on Tuesday.
A 30-day petition drive by the Meridian Tea Party to collect signatures needed to get a Voter ID Initiative on ballot next year has exceeded expectations, according to organizers. “It’s been a good process; hopefully, we’ll be able to turn in over a thousand signatures,” said Paul Tarver, co-founder of the local organization.
An election that would allow Mississippi voters to decide whether they should show identification at the polls appears unlikely for at least another two years. It may not happen at all, depending on whether supporters can navigate the complicated process of getting an initiative on a ballot.
Several states –including Alaska, Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oregon and Wyoming – ban or restrict paying people who collect signatures on a ballot initiative, referendum or recall petition based on the number of signatures they collect. Payment-per-signature allows citizens greater certainty in judging the cost of a petition effort. Moreover, in states that have passed such bans, the cost of successfully completing a petition drive has risen considerably, sometimes more than doubling.
With an Oct. 7 deadline approaching, Mississippi Republican Party Chairman Brad White said Friday about 35,000 signatures have been verified on a petition for a 2010 ballot initiative to require voters to show identification.
State Rep. Alex Monsour, R-Vicksburg, passed a petition Tuesday to Vicksburg Lions Club members asking them to back efforts to require photo ID at Mississippi polling places. A few signed, adding to about 50,000 signatures gathered statewide since the state Republican Party launched the petition effort in August. The petition seeks to add voter ID to the Constitution via a public referendum. “If we leave it up to the people to do the voting, that’s the way it should be,” said Monsour, who is serving his first term.