Early voting among election changes Hosemann would like to see in Mississippi

JACKSON -- Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann is asking legislators to update Mississippi's election laws, including allowing online voter registration and early voting at county courthouses.

Republican Hosemann unveiled his proposals Tuesday.

Voters will be able to change their addresses online as well.

"That saves a lot of time and effort and a lot of mad people," said Hosemann. "The process costs about 83 cents to do it by mail. This will cost us about 3 cents so there's a big cost savings."

There won't be online voting, nor voting at shopping centers and the like, which other states have tried.

"I'm not going to do that because I can't tell you it's secure," he said of online voting.

He wants to allow people to vote at county courthouses 21 days before any election. Current law allows limited reasons for voting early by absentee ballot, and Hosemann says some voters are being forced to lie about their plans to be out of town on election day.

Hosemann said legislation to change campaign laws would have momentum in Jackson because of the success of the voter ID law his office pushed. The laws came out of a task force that involved both parties, the courts, circuit clerks, the Attorney General's Office and prosecutors.

"When we bring it over (to the Legislature) it has momentum because it's been vetted," he said.

He also wants to shorten the timeline -- from 10 days to 48 hours -- for political committees to report their spending. He also wants candidates to give itemized listings of campaign expenses paid by credit card.

Hosemann proposes moving Mississippi's presidential primary to the same date as many other Southeastern states, starting in 2020.

And he wants to stiffen penalties for election law violations and for sending out illegal mailers.

He said the proposed law would treat incomplete campaign finance reports the same as a failure to file a report. Officials or candidates would not be able to run again until a complete report is filed, he said.

Most of the changes, if approved, would take effect July 1, he said.

Paul Hampton of the Sun Herald and Emily Wagster Pettis of the Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story was originally published January 19, 2016 at 6:07 PM with the headline "Early voting among election changes Hosemann would like to see in Mississippi ."