Delbert Hosemann Crying Wolf

Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann was in the news this week stating his fear that voters are casting their ballots. In short, Hosemann is scared voters are voting.

State law allows a number of instances where a voter may cast his or her ballot through an absentee ballot. They are:

(a) Any qualified elector who is a bona fide student, teacher or administrator at any college, university, junior college, high, junior high, or elementary grade school whose studies or employment at such institution necessitates his absence from the county of his voting residence on the date of any primary, general or special election, or the spouse and dependents of said student, teacher or administrator if such spouse or dependent(s) maintain a common domicile, outside of the county of his voting residence, with such student, teacher or administrator.
(b) Any qualified elector who is required to be away from his place of residence on any election day due to his employment as an employee of a member of the Mississippi congressional delegation and the spouse and dependents of such person if he or she shall be residing with such absentee voter away from the county of the spouse's voting residence.
(c) Any qualified elector who is away from his county of residence on election day for any reason.
(d) Any person who has a temporary or permanent physical disability and who, because of such disability, is unable to vote in person without substantial hardship to himself or others, or whose attendance at the voting place could reasonably cause danger to himself or others.
(e) The parent, spouse or dependent of a person with a temporary or permanent physical disability who is hospitalized outside of his county of residence or more than fifty (50) miles distant from his residence, if the parent, spouse or dependent will be with such person on election day.
(f) Any person who is sixty-five (65) years of age or older.
(g) Any member of the Mississippi congressional delegation absent from Mississippi on election day, and the spouse and dependents of such member of the congressional delegation.
(h) Any qualified elector who will be unable to vote in person because he is required to be at work on election day during the times at which the polls will be open.

With respect to persons over the age of 65, the counties Hosemann specified have a good number of senior citizens. Benton County's over 65 population is 17.4 percent; Claiborne's is 13.9 percent; Tallahatchie's is 13 percent; Noxubee's is 14.8 percent; Quitman's is 15 percent. Thus, the number of persons who are senior citizens who are eligible to cast an absentee ballot is in line with the turnout rates up to this point. On top of that, Hosemann did not mention how many people are on these counties' permanently disabled voter list or state how many students are likely out of town. 

To sum it all up, Delbert Hosemann is afraid that people in counties with high black populations are voting. In his time in office, he has done practically nothing to make voting easier in the state of Mississippi. All Hosemann has shown us is that his campaign about ballot protection has done almost nothing to prevent fraud. If Hosemann was so concerned about ensuring the integrity of the voting process, he should have put some meaningful proposals on the table over the past eight years rather than grandstanding and confusing elderly ladies on park benches.

It is also worth noting that Hosemann had a press conference today about conservative mystery groups which are funding opposition mail pieces against Republican legislators. The groups Hosemann referenced are not Democratic operations which had been suggested by representatives of Speaker Philip Gunn.