Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson wants the public to know that elections are safe and secure, but “there is never a perfect election.”
Watson, who served 12 years in the state Senate representing District 51, was elected secretary of state in 2020.
He told the Columbus Exchange Club on Thursday afternoon that, while Mississippi had “a great election in 2020” and it was “very smooth and well-run,” he feels that the state’s election system “can always get better.”
There are more registered voters than ever before, and there was better turnout than ever before in the 2020 election, he said. That makes election security vital, and that starts with proper maintenance of the voter rolls, including conducting proper purges.
When a question arises about someone’s residency — such as a summons for jury duty being bounced back through the mail — the local circuit clerk’s office sends a confirmation card to that voter. If they don’t respond, the purge process kicks in, he explained.
“If you don’t vote in two federal elections, if you don’t update your voter information, you can be purged,” he said. “It’s a three- to four-year process. It’s hard to be purged.”
The name of the purged person remains on the roll, he said, just on purged status. They can still vote by affidavit if they do show up at the polls, he said.
The problem arises when rolls are not properly maintained.
“When I came into office, there were seven counties with 100 percent or more of their voting-age population on the voter rolls,” he said. “That’s impossible.”
The “massive push” for universal vote-by-mail in 2020 means that, theoretically, every registered voter would get a ballot in their mailbox, including voters who are dead or have moved away, opening the door to fraud, Watson explained.
“That’s the importance of understanding why voter roll maintenance matters,” he said. “You should only have the folks that are legal, eligible voters on those rolls. That’s where your commissioners have to do their job and clean these rolls up.”
Voter roll maintenance relies on federal law, he said, because the state does not have any laws in place of its own.
“If, God forbid, something passed at the federal level that basically took over elections at the state level,” then Mississippi would be unable to push back, he explained. Putting in place state election laws gives the state an “anchor that we can lean on.”
There is also no law requiring people to prove their citizenship before registering to vote, he said. Watson would like to see the law changed to check citizenship when people go in to register.
“(Then) if someone goes to register, and a flag pops up and says they might not be a legal citizen, then they can go to the clerk’s office and prove their citizenship,” he said. “But they can’t vote until they prove their citizenship.”
Watson also wants a state law targeting social media companies who “deplatform” candidates, preventing them from getting their message out.
“We want to have notice so that Mississippians understand that you’re not going to hear from them, because they’ve been deplatformed,” he said.
He also wants to ban election spending by companies like Facebook, who donate via nonprofits to spur citizen action.
“They were sending dollars into these communities to be used to help in elections,” Watson said. “… In Wisconsin, they flooded money into these communities that they knew were tilted towards Democrats. I’m not being political here, I’m just telling you the facts. That money was used to heighten Democrat turnout in these communities.”
Finally, Watson said he wants to see the state pass a law allowing audits of elections after the fact. He cited Arizona as an example, where the legislature brought companies in to conduct an audit.
“We have no power whatsoever under the Mississippi constitution to conduct a post-election audit,” he said. “… If something happens during an election, you can challenge the election, but we have no post-election authority.”
When asked if there had been an increase of election fraud by a member of the audience, Watson said no.
“I wouldn’t say there is more than ever, but I will say that … I take it seriously,” Watson said. “If I hear about it, I’m going to go dig around and find it.”
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