Claims of voter suppression pop up ahead of Mississippi Senate election, lawsuit filed against the state

Molly Prince, DCNF

A Washington D.C.-based civil rights organization is suing Mississippi state election officials in preparation of Tuesday’s senate election, claiming that voting procedures relating to absentee ballots “threaten to disenfranchise honest, eligible voters.”

TUPELO, MS – NOVEMBER 26: (L-R) Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Cindy Hyde-Smith is introduced by President Donald Trump during a rally at the Tupelo Regional Airport, November 26, 2018 in Tupelo, Mississippi. President Trump is holding two rallies on Monday in Mississippi, in support of Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Cindy Hyde-Smith. Hyde-Smith faces off against Democratic candidate Mike Espy in a runoff election on Tuesday. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights filed a lawsuit on earlier last week in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Mississippi. The suit, filed on behalf of Mississippi residents, alleges that the process to obtain an absentee ballot is “onerous and costly” and that the timeframe to submit absentee ballots is too short. Therefore, Mississippi’s current absentee voting requirements violates both the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution.

“This burdensome process is difficult to navigate in the best of circumstances,” the filing reads. “When compounding circumstances — such as an inability to pay for or find notary services, or a delay in postal delivery — add further complications, it becomes impossible.”

While the lawsuit further alleges that none of the three plaintiffs had received their ballots for the U.S. senate runoff election, Republican Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann told that Associated Press that Mississippi’s election management computer shows that ballots for two of the plaintiffs were downloaded on Nov. 17, the first day election officials were able to mail them out. It is unclear what happened to the ballots after they were downloaded.

Mississippians will be headed to the polls on Tuesday to vote in the runoff election between Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and her Democratic challenger Mike Espy.

The race will be historic for Mississippi regardless of who wins — a Democratic win means that Mike Espy would be the state’s first black senator since the Reconstruction era after the Civil War. Conversely, Hyde-Smith would be the state’s first female elected to the U.S. Senate; Hyde-Smith was appointed to the seat in 2018 after former GOP Sen. Thad Cochran resigned.

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