Jackson Free Press

Elections are already underway for more than 3 million Americans who have access to early voting. What we're wondering at this point is why not us?

Mid-term elections in Iowa, Indiana and Ohio are getting a robust response with voters stepping in early to cast their ballots. Democrats and Republicans both claim in The New York Times this month that they're getting a better response than they expected this year. We'd like to have that kind of convenience here in Mississippi.

Early voting has its pluses. Many voters don't get around as well as others. Invalids or the handicapped can't always make special travel plans to get their wheelchairs in front of the polling place on the designated day. Non-voting relatives aren't always ready with a car on Tuesday, and some smaller municipalities offer no "Handi-Lift" services for the disabled. Other voters, such as employees in the transportation and travel industries, may be hundreds of miles away from their polling place when that fateful Tuesday comes rolling around.

For other people, it may be a matter of convenience. Some people, try as they might, simply are not capable of wrenching themselves away from their frantic daytime jobs long enough to pay a short visit to the polls.

There are plenty of reasons to allow early voting. Legislators acknowledged as much during the 2009 legislative session when they attempted to tack an early-voting initiative to a photo-identification requirement bill. Democrats attached the early-voting law to HB 1533 as a means to attract support for the Republican-championed photo ID legislation. The same legislation would have doubtless increased voter turnout in Mississippi by also extending registration time (including same-day registration), and returning suffrage to people convicted of non-violent crimes, including writing bad checks—a crime that afflicts a high number of African Americans. The same legislation also would have made it easier for motorists to register to vote at the same place they get their drivers license.

However, Senate Republicans chose to kill the voter ID legislation rather than allow residents access to early voting and other voting incentives. The GOP seems to fear more voters, and that's a sad state. Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant said last year that he was "not willing to back down from my Republican conservative principles and accept early voting and other provisions that compromise fair elections."

What exactly is that compromise? What, precisely, are we losing by not encouraging as many people as possible to vote? Is it really the fear that facilitating voting will bring more black people to the polls? Let's hope not. There's too much history in Mississippi with keeping blacks away from the polls.

Republicans: Rather than blocking people you think might vote against you, the American way would be doing everything possible to get the most people to support your policies because they benefit a wide swath of Mississippians.

Any elected official who does not support early voting does not deserve our support. Pressure your legislator to support this voter-friendly, bipartisan policy.