Mississippi voting rights restoration advocates begin to think of solutions beyond the Legislature
In Mississippi, the right to vote, once lost by conviction for one of the 22 felonies specified in the Mississippi Constitution, may only be restored by a pardon from the governor or a two-thirds vote of the Legislature. This makes Mississippi one of 11 states where rights restoration can be a matter of whom an individual knows.
An overwhelming number of incarcerated people in Mississippi are not making it through the state’s cumbersome restoration process. According to the Sentencing Project, more than 200,000 Mississippians were disenfranchised as of 2016 because of felony convictions. Of this total, an astonishing 93% had either completed their sentences or were in the process of completing probation or parole.
The SPLC Action Fund and its Mississippi partners have been working from the courthouse to the statehouse to restore voting rights for Mississippians banned from voting due to a conviction for a disqualifying offense. In 2018, the SPLC Action Fund and Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett filed a case in federal court on behalf of Mississippians contending that the lifetime voting ban violates the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment; the First Amendment’s right to political expression and association; and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment on the grounds that it arbitrarily grants or deprives citizens of the right to vote and that it was intended to discriminate on the basis of race. This case is still pending.
The most bills filed on any subject during the 2021 Mississippi legislative session had to do with the restoration of voting rights to individuals who have completed their sentences. Unfortunately, not one of these 22 bills even came up for consideration in Senate and House committees.
During a press conference on March 9, SPLC Action Fund partners MS Votes and One Voice, along with the Advancement Project, released a report detailing the stories of those directly impacted by Mississippi’s felony disenfranchisement laws and recommending potential policy solutions. Joining these organizations on the virtual stage was John Paul Taylor, the SPLC Action Fund’s field director for voting rights.
John Paul and other SPLC Action Fund staff are participating in earnest discussions about whether the time has come to explore a ballot initiative to extend the restoration of voting right to all Mississippians who complete their sentences immediately after release, regardless of outstanding fines, fees, restitution or other court-imposed costs.
Mississippi State Sen. Derrick T. Simmons of Greenville, who has authored restoration of rights bills in the Mississippi Senate every year since 2018, says, “Members have filed more than 100 of these bills and not one has made it out of committee. I believe due diligence requires that we explore solutions beyond the legislative process.”
An increasing number of currently and formerly incarcerated Mississippians and advocates agree.
Brandon Jones is the policy director for Mississippi at the SPLC Action Fund.
Photo by AP/Chuck Burton
