A House committee chairman has killed an effort this year to allow any Mississippi voter to cast his or her ballot early at the circuit clerk’s office.
The chairman, Rep. Noah Sanford, R-Collins, said he wanted to give the proposal more study due to concerns some of the state’s circuit clerks have raised about the cost of it. According to Sanford, the circuit clerks said they feared that they might have to hire an additional clerk to administer the change.
Really?
The proposal calls for allowing early voting for 15 days before an election, a shorter time than is allowed in some of the 46 states that already have this option. We’re talking about 15 days, not 15 weeks.
If that really created more work than a circuit clerk’s existing staff could handle, any additional help would be necessary for only a few weeks out of every year. That should not break any county’s or circuit clerk’s bank account.
Besides, there are cost savings to the change, too, that could offset any of these supposed extra expenses. No-excuse early voting would eliminate in-person absentee voting and possibly reduce the demand for mail-in absentee ballots as well. That would save the circuit clerks some time and headache.
There are so many advantages to early in-person voting that it makes little sense for Mississippi to remain one of the holdouts.
Early voting would add a layer of convenience, which should increase voter participation. It would be secure, since the early voting would be done in the circuit clerk’s office and voter IDs would be checked, just like at a precinct on Election Day. And if it reduces the number of absentee ballots requested, that means there should be less potential for fraud, since absentee ballots are the main avenue that the cheaters use.
The issue of early voting is not going away. Nor does it need a lot more study. Mississippi already has the example of what 46 states are successfully doing. How much more information does it really need?
