{"id":1948988,"date":"2023-06-16T11:02:02","date_gmt":"2023-06-16T15:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mississippi-becomes-ground-zero-in-national-fight-over-ballot-harvesting\/"},"modified":"2023-06-16T11:03:28","modified_gmt":"2023-06-16T15:03:28","slug":"mississippi-becomes-ground-zero-in-national-fight-over-ballot-harvesting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mississippi-becomes-ground-zero-in-national-fight-over-ballot-harvesting\/","title":{"rendered":"Mississippi at Center of National Battle Over Ballot Harvesting"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmississippi-becomes-ground-zero-in-national-fight-over-ballot-harvesting%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1948988&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"post_content\">\n<h2 class=\"c2\"><span class=\"c5\">Mississippi Ballot Harvesting Ban Challenged in Court<\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"c2\"><span class=\"c1\">Several <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senate-confirms-americas-first-native-american-cabinet-secretary\/\" title=\"Senate Confirms America\u2019s First Native American Cabinet Secretary\">civil rights organizations<\/a> are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/n-m-widower-sues-alburquerque-over-sanctuary-city-policy\/\" title=\"N.M. widower sues Alburquerque over sanctuary city policy\">taking legal action<\/a> against newly passed legislation in Mississippi that aims to ban ballot harvesting. They argue that the law would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/supreme-court-poised-to-reject-democratic-challenge-to-arizona-election-laws\/\" title=\"Supreme Court Poised to Reject Democratic Challenge to Arizona Election Laws\">disproportionately affect minority voters<\/a> and individuals with disabilities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c2\">The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Mississippi Center for Justice, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), ACLU-MS, and Disability Rights Mississippi (DRMS) have filed a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lapd-staffers-file-lawsuit-challenging-l-a-s-vax-mandate-for-city-workers\/\" title=\"LAPD Staffers File Lawsuit Challenging L.A.\u2019s Vax Mandate For City Workers\">federal lawsuit challenging<\/a> <a class=\"c0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=http:\/\/billstatus.ls.state.ms.us\/documents\/2023\/pdf\/SB\/2300-2399\/SB2358SG.pdf&#038;sa=D&#038;source=editors&#038;ust=1686919606858636&#038;usg=AOvVaw0j_vciYE_dk4N7u6ZtKADA\">S.B. 2358<\/a>. This legislation would prohibit third parties from collecting and delivering absentee ballots to polling places, and it is set to take effect on July 1.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c2\"><span class=\"c1\">Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves expressed his support for the ban, stating, &#8220;Here, we will make it easy to vote and hard to cheat.&#8221; However, opponents argue that the law would disenfranchise minority communities and individuals with disabilities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c2\"><span class=\"c1\">According to Ahmed Soussi, a staff attorney for voting rights with the SPLC, the law would punish volunteers who assist historically discriminated against communities in delivering absentee ballots. He believes it would diminish American democracy.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"c2\"><span class=\"c5\">Political Battle Over Ballot Harvesting<\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"c2\"><span class=\"c1\">The Democratic Governors Association (DGA) has also voiced concerns about the ban, using it as a political tool in their efforts to turn Mississippi blue. They aim to elect Democrat Brandon Presley to the governor&#8217;s office instead of Tate Reeves.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c2\"><span class=\"c1\">DGA Communications Director Sam Newton accused Reeves of attempting to consolidate power and avoid accountability. He highlighted a recent poll showing that over 20 percent of Mississippi GOP voters are crossing party lines to support Presley, who promises to tackle corruption and prioritize the needs of working people.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c2\"><span class=\"c1\">Governor Reeves has denied any allegations of corruption or misconduct.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"c2\"><span class=\"c5\">Ballot Harvesting Bans in Other States<\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"c2\"><span class=\"c1\">Mississippi is not alone in implementing a ban on ballot harvesting. Over 30 other states have also restricted or prohibited the practice, with some even making it a criminal offense.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c2\"><span class=\"c1\">For example, Arizona passed a law in 2016 that made it a felony to collect another voter&#8217;s ballot unless the collector was a relative, caregiver, or household member. Texas also has a ban on ballot harvesting, punishable by a felony and prison time.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c2\"><span class=\"c1\">These bans have resulted in prosecutions and convictions. In Arizona, individuals have been charged and sentenced for unlawfully collecting and depositing ballots. Similar cases have occurred in Texas.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>lawsuit against the ban on ballot harvesting in Mississippi. They argue that the legislation would disproportionately affect minority voters and individuals with disabilities, posing a threat to their voting rights. The Southern Poverty Law Center, Mississippi Center for Justice, ACLU, ACLU-MS, and DRMS jointly filed the lawsuit in federal court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1544,"featured_media":1948989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[7386,6731,5488,7388,6632,4107],"class_list":["post-1948988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-ballot","tag-battle","tag-center","tag-harvesting","tag-mississippi","tag-national"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1544"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1948988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1948989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1948988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1948988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1948988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}