A legislative compromise that would require voters to show identification before they could cast a ballot is likely dead this session. House Rules Committee Chairman Joe Warren said Monday he probably will allow the demise of a Senate resolution that would have resurrected the issue. It also would have given suffrage rights to some convicted felons.
He said there’s not enough votes on the House floor in favor of the voter ID requirement. It would need two-thirds of lawmakers’ support. Warren said he’s also not sure his committee would support it advancing to the entire chamber.
“We’ve been through this before,” Warren, D-Mount Olive, said of a voter ID debate in the House several years ago. “It was a three-hour blood letting, and it failed. It wasn’t pretty.”
Warren’s comments came hours after Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann put a new spin on why such legislation should survive. Hosemann, a Republican who took office in January, told the media that vote-buying and other types of voter fraud hurt poor people the most. He added that opponents of election reform in Mississippi have offered “tired, redundant comments.”
Magnolia Tribune
