MS voters shouldn’t have to pick between staying healthy or voting, lawsuit says
Voters who fear crowded polling places because of COVID-19 are asking in a lawsuit that they be allowed to vote by absentee ballot in the Nov. 3 general election.
The Mississippi Center for Justice and American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit in Hinds County Chancery Court on behalf of seven voters who live in Hinds and Rankin counties. They are suing Secretary of State Michael Watson, who oversees elections, and circuit clerks in Hinds and Rankin counties who distribute absentee ballots.
“In deciding whether to attend any public gathering, particularly a polling place on election day, voters are required to consider, and are permitted to follow, public health guidance,” the lawsuit says.
“They have the right to follow that guidance without surrendering the right to vote.”
At least two-thirds of states allow absentee voting without an excuse, the National Conference of State Legislatures says. Mississippi is not one of them.
The Legislature did recently amend state law so that anyone under physician-imposed quarantine for COVID-19 can vote absentee because they have a “temporary physical disability.”
The lawsuits asks a judge to clarify that all voters following public health guidance to avoid contracting COVID-19 can use the “temporary physical disability” excuse to cast absentee ballots.
Residents are being advised to avoid social gatherings of 10 or more indoors and 20 or more outdoors. The lawsuit points out polling places often have more than 10 people gathered indoors.
“Mississippians should not have to risk exposure to a deadly virus in order to vote,” Theresa Lee, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said in a news release about the lawsuit. “The court can ensure that voters do not have to choose between their health and their vote.”
This story was originally published August 11, 2020 at 4:05 PM.
