With less than a week before the Nov. 8 general election, county officials across Mississippi — including in Lowndes and Oktibbeha — are frantically trying to cope with a state error on ballots which was discovered after hundreds of absentee ballots had already been cast.
The Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office informed circuit clerks across the state that some of the wording on Initiative 26, popularly known as the “Personhood Initiative,” was inadvertently omitted. A fiscal analysis of each of the three proposed constitutional amendments was supposed to be included, but the analysis was not included with the “personhood initiative,” causing the ballots to have to be reprinted.
Lowndes County Circuit Clerk Haley Salazar will hold a meeting for candidates today at 2 p.m. at the Lowndes County Courthouse to explain how the county will handle absentee ballots on election night.
Approximately 550 absentee ballots had already been cast in Lowndes, and a representative from Salazar’s office said a resolution board will have to hand-transfer the absentees to scannable ballots.
The same process will be used in Oktibbeha County, where 250 absentee ballots have already been cast, Circuit Clerk Angie McGinnis said Thursday morning. A three-person resolution board will conduct the transfers.
McGinnis said last-minute mistakes are hectic, but her office is taking it all in stride.
“It’s just one of those things; it’s part of the election process,” McGinnis said. “I’ve learned over my years that you never know what to expect. We’re going to deal with it to the best of our ability.”
The Secretary of State’s Office will reimburse the associated costs, which can be considerable. In DeSoto County, 49,000 ballots had to be reprinted, costing $12,000, according to the Desoto Times Tribune.
Voters will face three questions at the polls Tuesday.
Initiative 26 will ask voters whether the term “person” should be defined to include “every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the equivalent therof.”
Initiative 27 asks voters to decide whether the Mississippi Constitution should be amended to require people to submit government-issued photo identification in order to vote.
Initiative 31 asks voters to decide whether the government should be prohibited from taking private property by eminent domain.
According to the fiscal analysis on the new ballots, there will be no fiscal impact on taxpayers for Initiatives 26 and 31.
The voter identification initiative is expected to cost the Department of Public Safety approximately $1,499,000 in lost revenue, because the department has been charging for photo identification, but there will be no charge for government-issued photo IDs if they become mandatory.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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