Mississippi voting issues

Election and registration information

 * Voter information guide

2008 election
For the 2008 election Mississippi used the following voting machines. For a county-by-county list of the specific machines (and the source for this section) see Verified Voting's Verifier tool.

Direct-Recording Electronic (DRE) machines with a paper trail:
 * Premier Election Solutions' (Diebold) AccuVote-TSX
 * ES&S iVotronic

Direct-Recording Electronic (DRE) machines without a paper trail:
 * Advanced Voting Solutions Winvote

Optical scan machines:
 * Premier Election Solutions' (Diebold) AccuVote-OS
 * Election Systems & Software's Model 100
 * Election Systems & Software's Model 650

Assistive Devices for Marking Paper Ballots:
 * Election Systems & Software's AutoMARK Technical Systems AutoMARK VAT

Governmental election authorities
Linda Dixon Rigsby, Assistant Secretary of State for Elections

Elections division website: http://www.sos.state.ms.us/elections/elections.asp

Contact information:
 * Located on the First Floor of the Heber Ladner Building
 * 401 Mississippi Street
 * Jackson, Mississippi 39201


 * Elections Hotline: 800-829-6786
 * Elections Call center: 601-576-2550  Fax: 601-359-5019


 * Email: use the form on the website

Election threats

 * For an extensive log of voting machine problems, see the VotersUnite! report on election incidents.

Felon voting rights
Quoting from an October, 2008 report on "de facto disenfranchisement" (summary)(download PDF) co-published by the Brennan Center for Justice and the ACLU:

"'Mississippi law bars individuals convicted of certain crimes from registering to vote unless the governor pardons them or a two-thirds majority of the legislature passes a bill restoring that individual’s right to vote. The Mississippi Constitution lists ten specific crimes that result in disenfranchisement, but the Attorney General expanded that list to include 11 additional crimes. Interviews conducted in 2005 revealed that about half of all Mississippi counties were using the list set forth in the Constitution, while the other half relied on the Attorney General’s expanded list.'"

"In Mississippi, a person does not lose the right to vote if convicted in another state or in federal court. However, interviews in 2005 revealed that only a third of the officials interviewed knew the law regarding federal convictions, and only half knew this was also true for out-of-state convictions."

State and local non-governmental election organizations
League of Women Voters

LWV of Mississippi, Fran Leber, President
 * P.O. Box 55505
 * Jackson, MS 39296-5505
 * Phone: 601-352-4616
 * E-mail: MSLeaguePresident@aol.com
 * http://www.lwv-ms.org

Local Leagues:
 * Gulf Coast Area
 * The Jackson Area