State Feed: Mississippi

Mississippi: Vote on mandatory healthcare proposed

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 10:50:15 -0400

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.

Read the story from WLBT 3

Mississippi: Voter ID initiative will be on ballot

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:13:40 -0500

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.

Mississippi: 2011 ballot for personhood measure

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:11:22 -0500

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.

Read the story from One News Now

Mississippi: Voter ID petition and signatures passed to Secretary of State

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:03:44 -0500

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.

Mississippie: Voter ID initiative moves forward

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:14:56 -0500

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: Alabama, Mississippi citizens shut out of government, says report

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:43:14 -0500

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.”

Read the story from the Mississippi Press

Mississippi: Abortion initiative potentially in court today

Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:41:04 -0500

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.

Mississippi: Initiative process explained

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:25:15 -0500

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.

Signature being collected for Voter ID ballot measure

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:44:09 -0500

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.

Read the story from the Meridian Star

Mississippi voter ID initiative unlikely to make it to ballot

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:17:14 -0400

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.

Read the story from the Clarion Ledger

Still more signatures needed for Mississippi Voter ID ballot measure

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:21:08 -0400

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.

Read the story from Yall Politics

Voter ID supporters still need many more signatures for 2010 ballot measure

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:09:14 -0400

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.

Mississippi GOP will try to get voter ID measure on ballot

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 15:15:19 -0400

The head of the Mississippi Republican Party said the group will handle an initiative to get voter identification on the ballot just as it would any other election campaign, by traveling the state to urge voters to support the issue. State GOP Chairman Brad White said he hopes to get the voter ID initiative on the ballot for November 2010. To do so would require some 100,000 signatures from certified voters in the state’s congressional districts by Oct. 1.

Read the story from the Sun Herald

Speed cameras on U.S. highways?

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:21:02 -0400

Lawmakers in Wisconsin, Ohio, Montana and Mississippi failed to get a freeway speed camera measure onto a ballot, but points to Maryland as an example of lawmakers’ success. He says 13 states have specific laws banning freeway cameras, but he sees a natural progression from states using red-light cameras to using freeway speed cameras.

Read the story from CNN

Voters approve by-the-glass liqour and wine sales in Mississippi town

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:32:36 -0400

Voters gave the Flowood business community a collective thumbs up, overwhelmingly approving a ballot measure granting resort status to the city so restaurants can begin selling liquor and wine by the glass. The measure passed 1,172 to 383.

Read the story from the Clarion Ledger

Mississippi Voter ID question likely to be on ballot in 2010

Thu, 28 May 2009 12:01:10 -0400

Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann is confident that an initiative to add photographic voter ID to the state constitution will be on the ballot for the next statewide election, telling the more than 200 members of American Legion Boys State Tuesday that work on the effort is “picking up steam.”

Read the story from The Daily Leader

Mississippi Secretary of State Starts Voter ID Petition

Tue, 26 May 2009 11:26:13 -0400

After failing to get the matter taken up by the state legislature, Mississippi’s Secretary of State is taking his quest for a voter ID law to the voters themselves. He and other supporters of a law that requires a government issued ID to vote need to collect over 90,000 signatures by October to put the question on the ballot.

Read the story from WTOK-TV

Initiative process guarantees legal, political struggles

Thu, 14 May 2009 11:36:07 -0400

Since 1993, Mississippians have had the option of taking power away from the Legislature and changing the state constitution as they deem appropriate when the Legislature refuses to act.

Read the story from the Clarion Ledger

Lawsuit Filed to Clean Up Outdated Section of MS Constitution

Mon, 04 May 2009 16:11:52 -0400

The Mississippi Constitution, article 15, sec. 273, contains the procedure for initiatives to change the state Constitution. That part of the Constitution was written in 1992, when Mississippi had five U.S. House Districts. The Constitution says, “The signatures from any one congressional district shall not exceed one-fifth of the total number of signatures required to qualify an initiative petition.

Mississippians to take voter ID issue to ballot

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:08:06 -0400

A petition drive for a ballot measure that would require voters to show a state-issued ID before voting will kick off statewide next month. Proponents are running the measure in response to the failure of a bill in the state House that would have created a voter ID requirement. Organizers will have one year to collect just over 90,000 valid signatures to place the measure on the 2010 ballot.

Read the story from the Desoto Times Tribune