Jackson Free Press

Leading up to Election day, we've heard a lot of semi-hysteria regarding voter fraud in Mississippi. Certain politicians have latched onto this chimera as the wedge issue for 2007, while loudly bemoaning the lack of voter turnout in the state. One might even get the impression that fraudulent voters outnumber legitimate voters, given those stump speeches.

Rankin, Hinds and Madison counties are woefully deficient in making voter information accessible. Not one of these counties has an easy way to find a voter's precinct, or their state House and Senate districts, or their county supervisor and school district. Madison's Web site doesn't even have an election commission listed, and if you search for voting information, the site points you to an anemic set of "frequently asked questions" and a phone number.

Even when you know your districts (Madison's voter registration card lists five), you are still faced with finding out who's on the ballot. Hinds County, at least, has a sample ballot posted on its Web site—a 128-page unsearchable monstrosity—but to find the one sample ballot specific to you out of the 63 presented, you must know your voting precinct, which you can't find online. Neither Madison nor Rankin has sample ballots available as far as we could ascertain.

The Mississippi secretary of state's sample ballot—a mere 30 pages—has one section for the entire state, then separate sections for various districts (southern, northern, etc.), plus each state Senate and House district. That seems simple enough, but again, the problem of finding out which districts you live in remains, because every voter lives in several different districts. And then you still have to determine your county-level offices, which this ballot does not include.

And all of this doesn't even touch on the difficulty in trying to find objective (or even subjective, for that matter) information on the candidates.

Mississippi legislators committed to fair voting practices and increasing voter turnout should stop talking about unsubstantiated voter fraud and start talking about how to make the voting process workable. In lieu of making the voting districts logical (heaven forbid), counties could make it far easier to find information. Each county must have an active database of addresses. Match the address data to the state's districts and voting precincts data, and bingo, you have the beginning of an automated system. Voters should be able to enter their address and see their districts on an Internet screen, and be able to download a relevant, one-page sample ballot with links to the candidates' Web sites. Surely, the technology and know-how is available; let's find the will.