Mississippi 2024 General Election Voter Guide: What you need to know before going to vote

On By Karl

From voter ID to what not to wear, Mississippi voters need to be ready to vote Tuesday.

The November 5 General Elections are now less than a week away. Voters in Mississippi and across America will vote for the next President and Vice President of the United States, as well as a host of other federal, state and local offices.

Here’s what Mississippians need to know before heading to the polls on Tuesday.

Have your ID ready

In Mississippi, voters must show acceptable identification before receiving a ballot. Valid forms of identification include:

  • Mississippi driver’s license
  • US passport
  • Military or government-issued ID card
  • Tribal photo ID
  • Student ID issued by the college or university
  • Mississippi Voter ID Card

For a full list of acceptable ID options, see Click here.

Even if the voter does not present a valid identification document, he has the right to vote with an affidavit if he wishes. The voter must provide acceptable photo identification to the Circuit or City Clerk within five business days of Election Day or risk having their ballot rejected. The deadline for this election is November 13.

What not to wear or do while voting

It is illegal to campaign within 150 feet of any entrance to a polling place unless it is private property. This includes wearing campaign merchandise or distributing campaign materials.

Taking photographs of the marked ballot paper is also prohibited.

Election officials are not allowed to loiter within 100 feet of any entrance to a polling place, except for voters waiting to vote or authorized poll watchers.

Know where to vote

If you’re unsure, the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office can help you find out where to vote. Simply Click here For the Polling Place Locator or contact your local county Circuit Clerk’s office.

When do polling places open and close?

For the November 5 General Election, the polls will open at 7.00 in the morning and close at 19.00 in the evening.

Every voter who lines up at 19:00 has the legal right to vote.

Need help?

Voters who need assistance marking their ballots due to disability, blindness, or disability

Illiterate people have the right to receive assistance from a person of the voters’ choice.

However, the candidate named on the ballot paper cannot be the spouse, parent, sibling or child of the candidate named on the ballot paper.

In addition, no assistance can be received from the ballot box observer who observes the voting place on the election day, or from the voter’s employer or the representative of that employer, or from the officer or representative of the voter’s union; provided, however, that the candidate or the candidate’s spouse, parent, or child is not immediately related to the voter seeking assistance.

How to report an issue?

The Department of State reminds voters that they have no enforcement authority in election-related matters.

Therefore, any problems observed in elections by state observers or reported to the Secretary of State’s Elections Division will be referred to authorities, including the Attorney General’s Office or the appropriate local District Attorney’s Office.

There’s still time to vote absentee

Voters who know they cannot go to the polls on Election Day will be able to vote at their local county Circuit Clerk’s office until Saturday, November 2. Offices will close at noon.

Under Mississippi law, the following categories of people are eligible to vote by in-person absentee ballot:

  1. Any qualified voter who is a bona fide student, teacher, or administrator at any college, university, junior college, high school, junior high school, or elementary school and whose studies or employment at such institution requires his/her absence from the county in which he/she is located to vote on the date of any primary, general, or special election. the spouse and dependents of such student, teacher, or administrator, with such student, teacher, or administrator, if such spouse or dependent(s) has a common residence other than the county in which the voting residence is located.
  2. A qualified voter who is required to be away from his or her place of residence on any election day because of employment as an employee of a member of the Mississippi congressional delegation and that individual’s spouse and dependents; Residing with the absentee voter, away from the district where their spouse’s voting residence is located.
  3. A qualified voter who is away from his/her district of residence for any reason on the election day.
  4. A person who has a temporary or permanent physical disability and who is unable to vote in person without significant hardship to himself or others because of that disability, or whose attendance at a polling place could reasonably pose a danger to himself or herself. others.
  5. The parent, spouse, or dependent of a person with a temporary or permanent physical disability who is hospitalized outside of the parent’s, spouse’s, or dependent’s county of residence or more than fifty (50) miles from his or her residence; Be around such a person on election day.
  6. Any person who is sixty-five (65) years of age or older.
  7. Any member of the Mississippi congressional delegation who is not in Mississippi on election day and the spouse and dependents of such member of the congressional delegation.
  8. Qualified voters who cannot vote in person due to being at work or on duty during the hours when the polls will be open on the election day.

Those eligible to vote absentee by mail ballot include:

  1. Any person who has been imprisoned and not convicted of a disenfranchising crime
  2. Any person temporarily residing outside their county of residence and their ballot must be mailed to an address outside the county.
  3. A person who has a temporary or permanent physical disability and who is unable to vote in person without significant hardship to himself or others because of that disability, or whose attendance at a polling place could reasonably pose a danger to himself or herself. others.
  4. The parent, spouse, or dependent of a person with a temporary or permanent physical disability who is hospitalized outside of the parent’s, spouse’s, or dependent’s county of residence or more than fifty (50) miles from his or her residence; Be around such a person on election day.
  5. Any person who is sixty-five (65) years of age or older.

The Department of State reminds voters that voters who request a mail-in ballot must return their ballots postmarked by Election Day, November 5. It must be received by the county Circuit Clerk’s Office by November 13.

— Article by Frank Corder. Magnolia Tribune —